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 ...
Continue readingNRA Exemption Expands
The NRA exemption to the DISCLOSE Act has reportedly grown wider. As we predicted, the appalling exemption demanded by the... View Article
Continue readingFinancial Reform Bill Must be Online for 72 Hours
The House-Senate conference committee on financial regulatory reform legislation has begun its work with the goal of completing the bill... View Article
Continue readingBarton plans Florida Keys fundraiser; Apologizes to BP
Texas Rep. Joe Barton, who apologized to BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward at a Congressional hearing today for having to create a $20 billion claims fund to help victims of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, is planning to host his “7th Annual Barton Family Fishing Trip & Florida Flats Fishing Tournament” the weekend of Oct. 15-18th on the island of Islamorada in the Florida Keys.
The event, which is in the Sunlight Foundation’s Political Party Time database of fundraising invitations, will be held at “the beautiful Cheeca Lodge & Spa” and the requested contribution to attend the ... Continue reading
Conference committee members seek loopholes, receive high percentage of finance contributions
Four key lawmakers on the financial reform conference committee are seeking to create loopholes in the so-called Volcker Rule and... View Article
Continue readingVictory on FDA Data
Back in February, we were encouraging participation in the Open Government Directive conversations happening at federal agencies, since they were... View Article
Continue readingStories to start the day
1) Jay Rosen has an interesting and provocative article on the political press. The political press being something that I... View Article
Continue readingTransparency Made Easy: How to Make the Government More Open and Accountable
Congressional staff are invited to attend Transparency Made Easy: How to Make the Government More Open and Accountable Topics for... View Article
Continue readingCitizens United: Connecticut’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 ...
Continue readingHello, Labs
Like Clay said, I'm the new guy. Well, not entirely new -- I've been at Sunlight since late 2008. But I'm the one who's going to be trying to fill the enormous gap he's leaving. I thought I'd start to explain how I want to do that by talking about how I arrived at Sunlight.
I first became aware of the Sunlight Foundation while working as a programmer at a consultancy here in DC, building sites for large nonprofits and dabbling with using and writing about various technologies on the side. When I heard about Sunlight Labs, I thought it was pretty much the coolest thing in the world. Technologists using their skills to directly improve society. For people like me (and probably you) -- people who have acquired a technical skillset that's powerful, in a sense, but not always obviously useful -- it's an incredibly compelling prospect.
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