Blog : Sunlight Foundation

Rick Renzi Indicted

by Paul Blumenthal Feb 22, 2008 11:04 am

Congressman Rick Renzi was indicted today for a land swap in his state of Arizona. The Politico's Ben Smith reports:

Republican Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona was indicted Friday morning on charges connected to a land deal in his home state, according to the Associated Press.

The indictment comes one day after Renzi, who had already announced his intentions to step down from Congress at the end of the year, buried his father, Army Maj. Gen. Eugene Carmen Renzi.

For more on the background of the investigation into Renzi read this section of his Congresspedia page.

View the indictment here. (via CREW)

Presidential Candidates Raise More than $100 million in January

by Ellen Miller Feb 22, 2008 10:18 am

From the Center for Responsive Politics data hounds:

The candidates competing to be your next president raised $3.3 million per day last month, according to reports that those still in the running and those who dropped out filed last night with the Federal Election Commission. January brought the field's total haul since fundraising began to $685 million, $586 million of it now spent. With $36 million in January -- the most any candidate has ever raised in a month while still in competitive primaries -- Sen. Barack Obama was the top fundraiser, by far. Sen. Hillary Clinton came in with about $14 million, plus $5 million from her own pocket. (Had she not lent herself that money, she would have had less to spend going into Super Tuesday than John Edwards.) Republican John McCain collected $12.6 million and reported a total of $5.5 million in loans and other debts. Summary figures for the candidates have been updated on OpenSecrets.org. The Donor Lookup, Fundraising Over Time and State/Metro data are also new. Updates to the site, including categorization of January contributors by industry and employer, will continue into next week as we analyze the data

Look up individual donors to the presidential candidates.

Fundraising by state and metro area.

Fundraising over time.

Congress’ Chief Admin Officer Orders Change to GOP Earmark Web Site

by Ellen Miller Feb 21, 2008 5:58 pm

Breaking News from Roll Call (sub required):

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is protesting a decision by Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard to shut down a Web site designed to bring attention to the effort to enact earmark reform.
Boehner launched the Web site, earmarkreform.house.gov, on Feb. 12. The site features news links to articles about earmark reform, along with press releases from Republican leaders calling for reform and a link to Boehner's leadership Web site.
The CAO's office had given Boehner permission to use the domain name in August 2007. But Beard sent Boehner an e-mail message on Feb. 21 informing the Minority Leader that the Web site needed to be shut down and moved to a different location with a different domain name.
Boehner sent Beard a letter protesting that decision on Thursday afternoon, asking for "a detailed explanation of the events that led your office to make this dramatic reversal."
"Changing its address now will inevitably hamper the effectiveness of the new website, much to the convenience of the majority that runs the House," Boehner writes.
In the letter, Boehner notes that the decision comes after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declined to support a Boehner-initiated call for a moratorium on all earmarks. It also comes after reports that out of the $263 million spent by House freshmen on earmarks, $237 million of that was spent by Democratic freshmen, Boehner writes.
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The Association of Government Accountants (AGA) has been around for almost 60 years advocating for the professional development of accountants working in federal, state and local governments. The association has kicked off their "Advancing Government Accountability" campaign, a push to educate the government and the public on the benefits of government transparency. The campaign is pushing government at all levels to provide the public with easy-to-use and understand guides on spending practices.

Yesterday, the AGA released the results of what they say will be an annual survey of public attitudes on government transparency and accountability. The survey results are no surprise. The public has "deep dissatisfaction" with both the availability of information and the way it's presented. Almost 60 percent of Americans are dissatisfied by the information the federal government provides on its spending. The poll found that 78 percent of Americans believe in transparency and accountability in spending is a good thing. (

Maybe Paying Attention Makes A Difference

by Ellen Miller Feb 21, 2008 3:01 pm

OMB Watch reports that EconomicIndicators.gov is back in business. Good news!

Lobbyist Trent Lott Under Federal Investigation

by Paul Blumenthal Feb 21, 2008 11:58 am

After the President signed his name to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, members of Congress had until January 1st to vacacte their seats if they wanted to trade the black suit and American flag lapel of Capitol Hill for the black suit and American flag lapel of K Street. The ethics reform bill extended the "cooling off" period for lawmakers-turned-lobbyists from one year to two years, which would leave retired members of Congress with 2 years to find something to do - write your memoirs or teach a class at the university that got so many earmarks they named a building after you - before they can make the big bucks on K Street. When Sen. Trent Lott announced his sudden retirement before the "cooling off" extension took effect it was clear that he wasn't looking to settle down at the Trent Lott Leadership Institute at Ole Miss. No, Lott was getting out early to work with his old bipartisan pal John Breaux on K Street.

There were, however, rumors that avoiding the "cooling off" extension was not the exact reason for Lott's early exit from his long congressional career. The Wall Street Journal puts those rumors to rest by publishing details of a federal investigation into Lott's possible role in a case involving the bribing of Mississippi judges by his half-brother Richard "Dickie" Scruggs:

Bonner & earmarks

by Bill Allison

investigations

Feb 20, 2008 10:41 pm

Last week, our friends in the Porkbusting movement expressed their dismay that the Republican House leadership chose Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., over Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., for an open slot on the House Appropriations Committee.

I thought I'd do a little open research on Bonner's fiscal year 2008 earmarks, a complete list of which can be downloaded here from our friends at Taxpayers for Common Sense. Bonner was the sole House sponsor of 14 earmarks worth more than $17 million (ten were also sponsored by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., one by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and one by ...

Lobbyists Upset at Homebuilder’s PAC

by Paul Blumenthal Feb 20, 2008 3:03 pm

Last week, the National Association of Home Builders announced that it was suspending PAC contributions to members of Congress because of the failure to obtain a tax-break provision they desperately wanted. (I'm sure that they aren't too happy about the bashing they're taking over the mortgage meltdown.) This action isn't being treated with open arms by other lobbyists and industry shops. Why, you ask? Well, because the NAHB is explicitly stating that their PAC contributions are tied to votes by members of Congress. Straight from the horse's mouth: contributions buy votes. Listen to these lobbyists try to distance themselves from NAHB (via The Hill):

“It’s not going to make a damn bit of difference,” said one senior business lobbyist, who said that the $10,000 limits on contributions to candidates’ campaigns were too low for such a threat to have any bite.
A spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, Mary Trupo, said her group had no opinion about the NAHB’s move except that “it’s not a tactic that we would take.” She added, “We continue to support members who have been supportive of the housing sector.”
“I’m embarrassed by what the homebuilders did,” said one lobbyist, who characterized the NAHB’s move as “inappropriate behavior.”

Of course, acknowledging fact in Washington is often "inappropriate behavior".

How Will The Next President Use Technology?

by Ellen Miller Feb 19, 2008 3:52 pm

Mark Glaser, host of PBS' MediaShift blog, looks forward to the next president of the United States and wonders how he or she might use technology and new media to be more responsive to us. So he has kicked off a "group exercise" where he asks all of us to send in ideas for ways the next president can use technology to be more open and responsive. He has set up a Feedback Form for readers to leave comments and ideas. Throw your ideas in there!