Welcome in the weekend with today's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
- Ten members of the Super Committee received $83,000 in donations from PACs representing 19 of the biggest political donors in August. (NYTimes)
- Data.gov, Performance.gov, and USAspending.gov are likely to remain top priorities for the E-Government Fund in FY2012, according to a General Services Administration official. (Federal Computer Week)
- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid invoked a rarely used procedure - called the "nuclear option" - in the Senate last night to prevent Republicans from forcing politically-charged votes. (The Hill)
- OMB issued final guidance on President Obama's June 2010 memo seeking to prohibit registered lobbyists from serving on federal advisory committees. (POGO)
- A commission established to advise state and local governments on how to implement cloud computing held its first meeting. (GovTech)
- The EPA has not conducted a workforce analysis in twenty years, according to a new report released by the EPA Inspector General. (POGO)
- Draft legislation from the OFfice of Special Counsel would prevent federal employees from automatically losing their jobs for violating the Hatch Act. (GovExec)
- A new executive order will mandate that federal agencies better protect classified information while still maintaining inter-agency cooperation. (Gov Exec)(Politico)
- If classifiers were required to justify their classification decisions more precisely then they would classify less, according to a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice. (FAS Project on Government Secrecy)
- The number of FOIA cases filed nationwide increased 27 percent during the last fiscal year. (The Blog of LegalTimes)
- Despite President Obama urging agencies to improve their compliance with FOIA requests, many apparently "missed the message." (Investigative Reporting Workshop)
- Active lobbying around the implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill may leave some regulations effectively meaningless. (The New Republic)
- A top official from the Energy Department who headed the office that awarded Solyndra millions in grants is leaving the agency for a position at a Washington think tank. (Washington Times)
- New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is transforming New York City using data to increase government transparency. (O'Reilly Radar)
Missing the Forest for the Trees?
It seems the Obama administration has decided the time has come to once again flex its ethics muscles. The Office... View Article
Continue readingTeach-in at #OccupyDC this Sunday
Like many organizers, I’ve been following the #occupywallstreet movement for a while. Last weekend, I was planning to head up... View Article
Continue readingSunlight Live Team Prepares for Oct 11 Debate
Tuesday, Oct. 11, will mark the 9th Republican presidential debate, two weeks after a string of debates in Florida, California and South Carolina. Sponsored by Bloomberg News and the Washington Post, this next matchup of Republican rivals will take place at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire. The Sunlight Live team will once again provide a live video feed, as well as real-time analysis, fact checking and context to help keep viewers informed.
The organizers say this debate will specifically address fears about the economy, jobs and a possible double-dip global recession.
Since the last debate, held Sept. 22 in Florida ...
Continue readingUsing Opengovernment.org to understand your constituencies
In continuing with our series on OpenGovernment.org, this time we take a look at how you can learn more about... View Article
Continue readingTools for Transparency: Use A Cell Phone to Collect Campaign Signatures
While helping out on a recent campaign, I was handed a clipboard to gather sign-ins for an event. Little did... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 10/6/2011
Here is Thursday's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
- Foreign nations are getting in on the race to influence members of the Super Committee. Each member of the committee has met with at least one foreign lobbyist in the past year. They have also received more than $50,000 in contributions directly from foreign lobbyists this cycle. (POGO)
- It appears likely that Super PACs will not have to disclose the details of their fundraising until well after the first votes have been cast to decide the Republican nominee . The Iowa Caucuses are expected to take place in the dawning days of 2012, and at least 4 additional contests will be held before the January 31st filing deadline. (Washington Post)
- A new FEC ruling will make it easier for PACs to combine the functions of traditional and Super PACs. The ruling allows these hybrid PACs to raise unlimited funds for independent expenditures, provided they store that money in a separate bank account from the money they raise for direct donations to candidates. (Roll Call)
- About one Super PAC has been formed every day since late September, easily outpacing numbers for the 2010 election cycle. The PACs are expected to spend significantly more than in 2010 as well. (Politico)
- A group of House Democrats are calling for a Congressional investigation into ethics and conflict-of-interest questions that have been floating around Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The issues came to light after Justice Thomas filed financial disclosure papers, reporting more than $1.5 million in previously undisclosed income that his wife has earned since 1997. (Politico)
- Sunlight Labs is getting some love for Influence Explorer. The site is making it easier to search for public comments on proposed regulations posted on regulations.gov. (Federal Computer Week)
- OMB released new guidelines today that will preclude registered lobbyists from being appointed to sit on federal boards and commissions. Lobbyists have come out against the decision, claiming it will limit access to their expertise. (Roll Call)
- K Street is losing a major funding stream, as trade deals with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea are expected to be ratified by Congress soon. The three countries have spent at least $15 million on lobbying, legal, and PR fees related to the Free Trade Agreements since 2006. (The Hill)
Big PACs contribute $83,000 to super committee members
The political action committees of Lockheed Martin, the National Association of Realtors, Pfizer and Chevron all reported making contributions to members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction--better known as the super committee--in the roughly 20 days of August after House and Senate leadership appointed them to the panel.
PACs for 19 of the biggest political donors in the country, as determined by Center for Responsive Politics, have reported contributing more than $83,000 to 10 of the 12 members of the super committee or their leadership PACs, Federal Eelection Commission filings show. It's the first glimpse available ...
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 10/5/2011
Here is Wednesday's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
- Third quarter fundraising reports are due soon, and early numbers are starting to leak. Rick Perry has exceeded predictions and raised around $17 million for the quarter, nearly matching Mitt Romney's second quarter take. (National Journal)
- Mitt Romney, who has kept expectations low for his third quarter fundraising haul, has some very strong supporters. At least 50 donors, who have already contributed the maximum allowed amount to his presidential campaign, have also given princely sums to the Super PAC fighting for his election. (Yahoo/AP)
- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor might soon get some super support of his own. Reports suggest that Cantor's deputy chief of staff is departing to start a Super PAC dedicated to raising the Congressman's national profile in advance of a possible Vice Presidential run. (National Journal)
- The government relations and public affairs firm Cornerstone Government Affairs LLC is opening new offices in Houston, Texas and Jackson, Mississippi. Representative John Culberson's (R-TX) chief of staff, Tony Essalih, has been hired to run the Houston office. (National Journal)
- Susan Collins (R-ME) will see Molly Wilkinson, a senior member of her staff, move to Regions Bank. Wilkinson will serve as a senior vice president of government affairs for the bank. (Federal Computer Week)
- The Glover Park Group is losing Aoife McCarthy, a director, to government service. She will join the Corporation for National and Community Service as its press secretary. (National Journal)
- The White House's online petition site, We The People, has proved so popular in its first week that the administration has quadrupled the number of signatures required for a petition to qualify for a response. The site is considered part of the Obama administration's transparency efforts. (Nextgov)
- More than 1 million people have signed up for digital updates from the Indiana state government. The program, launched in 2008, sends out monthly updates via email and text messaging services. (GovTech)
- A California state senator is preparing to propose legislation that would expand the number of people subject to the state's revolving door provision. Members of the public appointed to serve on boards would have to wait twelve months after terminating their service before lobbying former colleagues. (Lobby Comply)
Corporate Accountability Data in Influence Explorer
Sunlight reporter Ryan Sibley published a short post today on various efforts of Koch Industries to influence environmental policy. That piece is a perfect example of the value of bringing disparate datasets together under one site. Ryan pulls in data on Koch Industries’ lobbying activities, EPA enforcement actions against the company and a Koch executive that sat on an EPA advisory committee–all from Influence Explorer and TransparencyData.
The story is based on some of the new data sets that we’ve added to Influence Explorer: EPA enforcement actions, public comments on federal rulemakings and corporate employees on federal advisory committees. I’ll give a brief overview of each.
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