An Alaskan nonprofit foundation that raises money to make the records and mementos of Sen. [Ted] Stevens' career in public service" has failed to file registration documents or pay fees since 2004, according to the Alaska Department of Law. In response to a FOIA request to the department for all documents filed by the Ted Stevens Foundation (recently renamed the North to the Future Foundation), we received papers filed in 2003 and were told by department officials that none had been filed since then.
Any organization that is raising funds in the state of
Backsliding on Earmark Reform?
Robert Novak suggests in a column today one subject in divided Washington that gets bipartisan support:
[Sen. Harry] Reid is also working behind the scenes with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to undermine earmark transparency and prevent open debate on spending proposals... ...Reid is plotting to strip anti-earmark transparency from the final version of ethics legislation passed by the Senate and House, with tacit support from Republican senators and the GOP leadership.I'm shocked. Also not surprised. Interestingly, Novak reports that the issue that's rankling lawmakers is a provision that would "bar earmarks benefiting a senator's family members." Continue reading
Does the EPA collect SF-LLLs?
Browsing through the 2008 Senate Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill on the Taxpayers for Common Sense site, I noticed that one of the largest amounts ($11 million) was earmarked to the National Rural Water Association a non-profit organization that provides training and technical assistance and gives out sub-grants to water providers in rural areas. They receive grants from the USDA and the EPA.
Earlier in our search of the elusive SF-LLL forms, I had sent out a FOIA request to the Environmental Protection Agency asking for:
Coburn goes after lobbying by contractors, requests lobbying disclosures from Pentagon
Citing 31 U.S.C. 1352, the federal statute that bars contractors and grantees to use federal funds to lobby the government, and requires them to disclose any lobbying they've done in connection with winning a contract or grant (that's the elusive SF-LLL we've been tracking), Sen. Tom Coburn has written to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates requesting, among other things, SF-LLLs (good luck, Senator!). The full letter is attached; here's an excerpt...
As you know, federal law (31 U.S.C. 1352) requires recipients of federal funding to complete a form, know as SF-LLL, to ...Continue reading
DeMint Makes Case for Earmark Transparency
Earlier this week (Tuesday, to be exact), Sen. James DeMint made a pretty good argument on the Senate floor as to why earmarks should be transparent. He also plugged the efforts of bloggers who've been all over this issue, including Sunlight. See for yourself:
Continue readingD.C. Madam Spawns Citizen-Generated Online Database
While much of D.C. is all atwitter about the D.C. Madam scandal and the subsequent revelations about Sen. David Vitter's appetite for prostitutes, we've been pretty silent here at Sunlight about the whole thing. That's because scandals about the personal failings of someone's private life are of no consequence to us. The Mark Foley scandal was an exception because that highlighted the institutional failings, and possible rule-breaking, of the congressional leadership at the time. Duke Cunningham's prostitutes were also an exception because they were used as bribes for earmarks. The Hill, however, reported today on an angle of the D.C. Madam case that is of interest to Sunlight. After Deborah Jean Palfrey, the D.C. Madam, posted her phone list on her personal Web site four Boston-based Brandeis alumni used that data to create a searchable database of all the phone numbers used to call Palfrey and secure her "services".
Continue readingOn Land Deal, Murkowski takes the Personal out of Financial Disclosure
Laura McGann of TPM Muckraker writes about an odd wrinkle in the personal financial disclosure rules that's being advanced by an aide to Sen. Lisa Murkowski to explain her failure to dislcose some property she bought. To briefly recap McGann's story, Murkowski bought some undeveloped land from Bob Penney, a politically connected Alaskan real estate developer (he's quite close to Sen. Ted Stevens). Local realtors consulted by McGann suggest the property might sell on the open market for as much as $300,000. How much Murkowski actually paid is unknown--the transaction price in Alaskan real estate deals are not public, Penney isn't talking and Murkowski didn't list the purchase on her personal financial disclosure form because, her office says, the land is for personal use:
Murkowki's office called the purchase exempt from Senate financial disclosure, citing a clause in the ethics manual which says "property which is held or maintained solely for recreational or personal purposes does not have to be reported." (ethics manual) The committee declined to comment for this story. "She bought this for personal use just like millions of other people," Danielle Holland said. "My response to your question, times six, is it's for personal use."Continue reading
News You Can Trust
One of Sunlight’s early goals was try to figure out how to improve the quality of reporting about what goes on in Congress, and so we are very pleased to announce a new grant to NewsTrust.net -- an organization that has developed an online news rating service to help people identify quality journalism -- or "news you can trust." Their members rate the news online, based on journalistic quality, not just popularity.
Their (still beta) Web site and news feed feature the best and the worst news of the day, picked from hundreds of alternative and mainstream news sources. Sunlight’s grant will provide an opportunity for a specific look at the U.S. Congress. Specifically, through the coming year, NewsTrust.net will search for quality journalism about our elected representatives, with a focus on accountability, corruption and transparency in Congress.
We hope you’ll jump right in. Sign up to contribute stories, get involved in evaluating them.
Read a good story on the U.S. Congress lately? Please submit it here, so others may learn from your research.
Legal Fees and Members of the House
This Sunday was the filing deadline for congressional and presidential second quarter FEC reports. Currently both the FEC and PoliticalMoneyLine are posting these reports in real time. Unfortunately, thanks to Mitch McConnell and other obstructing Republicans, we can’t view Senate campaign finance reports in real time because they aren’t filed electronically. If McConnell and his party would let the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act (S.223) pass we wouldn’t have to wait another couple of months to find out how much our Senators raised and spent. In the meantime, let’s take a look at which members of Congress are caught up paying legal fees.
Congresspedia reports that there are currently 10 members of the House of Representatives under investigation. Not all of the reports have been posted yet, so you will notice that Rep. William Jefferson, who is certain to pay exorbitant legal bills, is not yet listed. Some names that pop up that aren’t on Congresspedia’s list of members under investigation include Don Young and John Boehner. Former Reps. Mark Foley and JD Hayworth clearly saved some money in their campaign accounts for a reason.
Continue readingFriends of Mark Foley: $277,367
Alaskans for Don Young, Inc.: $242,306
JD Hayworth for Congress: $102,126
Hastert for Congress Committee: $59,884
Lewis for Congress Committee: $54,756
Friends of John Boehner: $52,938
John T. Doolittle for Congress: $50,584
Rick Renzi for Congress: $25,000
Alan Mollohan for Congress: $22,671
Tim Murphy for Congress: $6,585
New Features on Congresspedia
Congresspedia has expanded its platform to include new features on policy issues and legislation, adding to its great wealth of information on members of Congress. These new resources complement its existing profiles on legislators. We think that the new features will give citizens access to insider information on issues and legislation, and offer opportunities to collaborate with policy experts. Here's a link to the portal home page.
Congresspedia now has:
* 14 new federal policy and legislative portals for experts and interested citizens to update and improve articles on various policy issues and on specific legislation. Here's a really terrific example on Telcom policy.
59063
