As stated in the note from the Sunlight Foundation′s Board Chair, as of September 2020 the Sunlight Foundation is no longer active. This site is maintained as a static archive only.

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Sunlight Live: Debating the economy, take two

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The eight leading Republican presidential candidates are headed to Rochester, Mich., on Wednesday for the latest in a long season of GOP debates. This one will be the first since decades-old allegations of sexual harassment shook Herman Cain's campaign. Naturally, the Sunlight Live team is ready to follow the action.

Despite the allegations, the Georgia businessman continues to lead the polls along with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, though no polls have been conducted since one of the alleged sexual harassment victims held a press conference Monday afternoon. At that event, she said Cain touched her inappropriately as she ...

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2Day in #OpenGov 11/7/2011

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Here is the week's first look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup: Government

  • The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee cleared the Government Results Transparency Act, which would "build a bridge between performance...and spending data," according to its sponsor, Frank Guinta (R-NH). (ExecutiveGov)
  • Opinion: Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wants the federal reserve to be more transparent, and work for the American people, "not just the chief executive officers on Wall Street." (Politico)
Access to Information
  • A draft White House memo released over the weekend would require federal agencies to disclose special funding requests from members of Congress. The White House presents the memo as part of its ongoing efforts to reduce earmarks and increase government openness and accountability. (National Journal)
  • Last week, the Justice Department pulled a proposed rule that would have allowed them to mislead FOIA requesters about the existence of certain sensitive documents. Now, it appears that they may have been doing just that for the past 25 years. (POGO)
Lobbying
  • One of House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer's (D-MD) top aides is heading to K Street. Stacey Farnen Bernards will become a vice president of government relations at Honeywell International. (Politico)
  • Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recently lost her communications director to the revolving door. Brendan Daly, who was Pelosi's messaging guru during the healthcare debate is now working for Ogilvy Government Relations. One of his clients is the Essential Health Benefits Coalition, a notable opponent of the healthcare law. (Politico)
  • Jack Abramoff criticizes federal lobbying laws in his new autobiography. He doesn't think they are strong enough to keep special interest power in check. (Yahoo/AP)

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Music, movie industries giving to Rep. pushing for copyright enforcement

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The House Judiciary Committee chairman backing a bill that would allow the Justice department to force internet service providers to take down websites committing copyright infringement has leading communications companies bankrolling his campaign.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has seen nearly $393,000 from the TV/music/movies industry during his Congressional career and it ranks fifth among the top industries supporting him. It's legacy companies in that industry — along with other broadcasting and recording industry groups — that would benefit from stricter enforcement of pirated content that could come from Smith's H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act ...

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Senators on super committee collecting less campaign cash this quarter

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All but one Senate member on the super committee collected less campaign funds this quarter compared the previous quarter. Only Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, had a modest increase collecting a total of $85,532.

So far in this election cycle, Portman has raised $53,000 from individuals and $106,000 from PACs. Here's a compilation of all of recent PAC donations to Portman’s election committee.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash, raised $30,654 in the third quarter of the year; that is 85% less than she raised in the second quarter. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass raised $16,135 this ...

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2Day in #OpenGov 11/4/2011

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Finish the week strong with Friday's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup: Government

  • The Justice department is dropping their controversial rule that would allow government officials to lie about the existence of certain records in response to FOIA requests. The rule had been met with skepticism from Republican Lawmakers as well as government watchdogs. (The Hill) Last week, our own John Wonderlich wrote about the many problems with DOJ's proposed rules.
  • FEC commissioners faced tough questions from members of the House Administration Committee on their lack of transparency at a hearing yesterday. A coalition of good government groups took the opportunity to call on President Obama to reform the commission and install new commissioners. (Politico)
  • The SEC Inspector General found that the agency's Enforcement Division routinely destroyed preliminary investigative files that should have been retained as federal records. The investigation confirmed allegations by whistleblower and SEC Enforcement attorney Darcy Flynn. (POGO)
  • The House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee favorably reported the Government Results Transparency Act, H.R. 3262, to the full House. The bill would amend the DATA Act to require agencies to post performance information on specific programs. (Government Executive)
  • California shut down a government transparency website. The site was launched under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but hadn't been updated since he left office in January. The information is still available online, but at different locations. (Government Technology)
Ethics
  • The House Ethics Committee has voted to move forward with their investigation of Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA) despite her best efforts to convince them not to. The committee will look into allegations that Richardson threatened to fire members of her congressional staff if they did not work on her campaign. (Politico)
  • During his tenure as Governor of Texas, Rick Perry has taken over 200 free flights from corporate executives and wealthy donors. Many of these flights involved government business, sometimes related to the planes' owners. (New York Times)

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