The North West Indiana County Times recently pointed out something fascinating about how Indiana was using funds granted to it under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:
Indiana State Budget Director Christopher Ruhl confirmed the federal stimulus money was used to provide basic tuition support dollars for school districts, allowing the state to squirrel away funds that normally would have been used for that purpose.Continue reading
"The state dollars saved were placed in our education rainy day fund," he said. "The special session budget required those funds be transferred from the education rainy day fund to the state general fund in ...
How are House members spending taxpayer money?
The House of Representatives released its tabulations of members' office expenses--including personnel costs, travel, district office expenses and vehicle expenses--last Friday, and the Sunlight Foundation turned the 3,000 page PDF into a searchable database, enabling reporters and curious constituents to do easy aggregation.
Here are some snippets from the data:
-- Appropriations was the highest spenders among committees, totaling more than $4.6 million in the last quarter of 2009, followed by the Oversight & Reform and Energy & Commerce committees with just over $3 million each.
-- In addition to technology-related companies and suppliers such as Dell and Microsoft, the House also ...
Morning Links
1) Lobbying: Who will win and who will lose? 2) Lawmakers pocket money for official trips paid out of their... View Article
Continue readingWhite House-PhRMA Update
Last we left off in the story of the White House-PhRMA deal the White House had made new cost cutting... View Article
Continue readingSunlight Live vs. TV Media, Ctd: David Foster Wallace, Transparency, C-SPAN, Health Care Reform and Data Jamming
There’s a been a bunch of writing around the Internet about the success/failure of last week’s Blair House health care... View Article
Continue readingSunlight Live Recap: How We Did It
During the Health Care Summit on Thursday, Feb 25, Sunlight tried something new by connecting a live political event to the government data and information we work to make more accessible every day. Dubbed "Sunlight Live," our coverage of the joint Republican and Democratic heath care summit as a pilot was a smashing success, thanks to all of you.
Continue readingSunlight Live vs. TV Media
There are a lot of reasons that I never watch television news, particularly cable news. This “CNN analysis” of the... View Article
Continue readingCharlie Rangel Loves the Caribbean
The House Ethics Committee admonished Rep. Charles Rangel for trips he took in 2007 and 2008 to a business-funded event... View Article
Continue readingPentagon Weapons Test Report Harder to Get Since 9/11
Until Sept. 11, 2001, a little-known but indispensible annual report by the Defense Department gave the public a window into whether the tens of billions of taxpayer dollars spent each year led to weapons that work. Then, the reports by the Pentagons director of Operational Test and Evaluation were pulled from the website.
In the case of this specific report, the thinking was, why advertise that our weapons dont work, said Tom Christie, who was director of the test office from July 2001 through January 2005. The office was created by Congress to examine if weapons worked as well and ...
Former health policy aides try to shape ex-employers’ positions from K Street
At least 69 people formerly employed by some of the 40 or so Congressional leaders present at yesterday's healthcare summit have gone through the revolving door to lobby for the health industry, representing a combined 180 companies and trade associations, Center for Responsive Politics data shows. Many worked on health issues as Hill aides, garnering policy chops on the issues that matter to health insurance companies, medical professionals associations, and pharmaceutical companies. But they also have easier access to their former colleagues on Capitol Hill.
As Nancy Pelosi's chief of staff, Judith Lemons served continuously as the House ...
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