Blog : Sunlight Foundation

Is FOIA any better under Obama? An anecdote today, data later

by Anu Narayanswamy

investigations

Jun 23, 2009 9:01 pm

Newsweek's Michael Isikoff report on the Obama administration's mixed record on transparency got me to thinking about our own experience with FOIA requests. Isikoff notes,

As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies. One reason: the disclosure of such records might impinge on privileged ...

Some stimulus recipients to report in Excel?

by Bill Allison

investigations

Jun 23, 2009 8:02 pm

Just reading the new guidance from Office of Management and Budget for recipients funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to report information to the government: "This Recipient Reporting spreadsheet template is to be used for non-machine recipient reporting. It enables manual data entry and collection of recipient reporting information in a familiar excel format."

There's also some XML schemas for those submitting machine readable data.

What the frak is going on with the Cap and Trade bill?

by Paul Blumenthal Jun 23, 2009 2:15 pm

There is currently some wacky legislative maneuvering going on with H.R. 2454, the cap and trade energy bill, that puts... View Article

The Max Baucus Health Care Lobbyist Complex

by Paul Blumenthal Jun 22, 2009 5:18 pm

Mapping Max Baucus’ Health Care Lobbyist Complex. Click image for full visualization. As the chair of the Senate Finance Committee,... View Article

Is the Senate Getting the Message?

by Lisa Rosenberg Jun 22, 2009 11:51 am

As my colleague John Wonderlich wrote here, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her intention to put House office expenditures online.... View Article

Ignore the 5-Day Pledge, Organize Around 72-Hour Rule

by Paul Blumenthal Jun 22, 2009 11:11 am

The New York Times has a story today on President Obama’s 5 day bill posting pledge and how this transparency... View Article

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data Available on Data.gov

by Clay Johnson

technology

Jun 20, 2009 6:05 pm

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Just added 35 new data sources to Data.gov. There's some really interesting data in there, including data on national compensation, work stoppages, employment and more. Great new data sources for your app.

Recovery.gov 2.0 Bid Status Report

by Clay Johnson

technology

Jun 19, 2009 2:58 pm

The Recovery.gov bid: What's happened so far

So we're busily cranking out ideas and materials for the Recovery.gov bid over on the labs wiki. I wanted to catch you all up on what's going on, and what we know so far.