In the wake of an annual GAO report that some lobbyists have failed to register upon employment by a client,... View Article
Continue reading“Unseemly Behavior”
Last week, the New York Post reported that “[s]ome Republican congressmen have been warned to keep their distance from the... View Article
Continue readingCharlie Rangel Links
The House Ethics Committee is holding a meeting this Thursday on the ethics charges to be filed against Rep. Charlie... View Article
Continue readingMeet the New Federal Register
If you haven't already, be sure to check out the new federalregister.gov, which launched last night. For some of you, the site might bring to mind govpulse, one of the winners of our second Apps for America contest. That's no coincidence: GPO and NARA, the agencies responsible for maintaining the FR, sought out Andrew, Dave and Bob -- the folks behind govpulse -- and asked them to help build the new site.
As you can imagine, those of us at Sunlight are pretty excited about this. It's a great validation of the work of the Labs community, and a wonderful example of what's possible when government stays open to the transformative possibilities offered by technology.
Continue readingA paper inspired rant that the government could have prevented
Government Data and the Case for Not Running Me Over
Over the weekend I was clearing out my RSS, and was pleasantly surprised to find Sunlight's work in an unexpected place. TheWashCycle is my favorite DC bike blog, and its author has started a series of posts designed to address arguments that are commonly faced by cycling advocates. One of those is that cyclists don't pay for roads — that the gas tax pays for them — and consequently folks on bikes aren't entitled to the use of roads, or are less entitled to space on the road than motorists, or shouldn't have a say in how roads are built.
As it turns out, the assumption that cyclists don't pay for roads is wrong. The WashCycle post linked to some work that we did for Pew's Subsidyscope project, which shows that gas taxes are paying for a decreasing share of our roads. In 2007 taxes and fees related to auto use covered only half the bill. The shortfall is made up by general revenues and debt — and though the specifics of the story play out differently from state to state it's safe to say that cyclists pay taxes that help build roads.
I mention all this not simply to highlight some pro-cyclist propaganda — though of course, as a daily bike commuter, I'm glad to do that, too — but rather to point this out as an example of what open government data can accomplish.
Continue readingHouse to charge Charlie Rangel with ethics violations
Despite his oft repeated assertions to the contrary, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., will be charged by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for as yet unspecified violations of congressional ethics rules.
A Reminder to Keep the Pressure on to Read the Bill
Once again there is movement afoot for Congress to pass a measure that would require legislation to be online for... View Article
Continue readingTools for Transparency: The Power of Aggregation
Last week my dad snapped this great photo of a Giant Silk Moth resting in his southwest Ohio backyard –... View Article
Continue readingCitizens United: Rhode Island’s response
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United v. FEC case has rendered 24 states' election laws unconstitutional. The 5-4 ruling in favor of Citizens United reversed a provision of the McCain-Feingold act that prohibited any electioneering communication—defined as advertising via broadcast, cable or satellite that is paid for by corporations or labor unions. Many states have acted fast to counter corporations’ ability to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections by passing laws that force disclosure of all independent expenditures in near real time. The Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group has decided to report what each of ...
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