A while back, we reported that the disclosures filed under the Foreign Agent Registration Act were about to go online. Until now, these detailed disclosures--which require those paid to attempt to influence U.S. policies for foreign governments and some government-controlled entities to list their meetings with government officials, including members of Congress and their staff--were publicly available, but just barely. Only those who visited FARA's New York Ave. office here in Washington, D.C., between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday (closed Federal holidays), and looked up the records on balky, user-unfriendly interface, could ...
Continue readingFollow the Leader–er, Leadership PACs
Our friends at the Center for Responsive Politics have asked for help identifying "mystery PACs" -- political action committees that are probably tied to an individual member. Members of Congress form leadership PACs to raise money for other candidates, mostly, enhancing their status within the caucus. There's no requirement for a member to disclose a leadership PAC, or for th PAC to admit a connection to the leader.
I started with the Penguin PAC because I like Penguins. The first thing I did was to look at the original filings at the Federal Election Commission Web site (each CRP PAC ...
Continue readingFARA Puts Some Records Online
A while back, my colleague Anupama Narayanswamy reported on the RealTime blog that the disclosures filed under the Foreign Agent Registration Act were about to go online. Until now, these detailed disclosures--which require those paid to attempt to influence U.S. policies for foreign governments and some government-controlled entities to list their meetings with government officials, including members of Congress and their staff--were publicly available, but just barely. Only those who visited FARA's New York Ave. office here in Washington, D.C., between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday (closed Federal holidays), and looked up the records on balky, user-unfriendly interface, could get them, and only those prepared to pay 50 cents a page to copy them could get them out of that office. Now, some of those records are available online, although a FARA staffer tells us that the site isn't officially public--they haven't formally announced its availability.
Continue readingFCC Correspondence Logs
Here are the two Federal Communications Commission spreadsheets, converted from PDF to excel. The first one is for January and February and the second for March.
Continue readingRep. Jan Schakowsky Punches the Clock!
Illinois 9th’s Representative has started posting her schedule on her website making her the 6th Member of Congress to adapt this vital transparency measure. Check out her schedule here. This is her post from yesterday:
DCCC Women’s Breakfast
Democratic Joint Caucus/Whip Meeting
Illinois Delegation luncheon
Meeting with L. Craig Johnstone, Deputy High Commissioner for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Continue readingSigh. Another Secret Hold.
What is it with bills that create more open and transparent government and secret holds? Last week, a Republican senator placed a secret hold on the OPEN Government Act, a bill that would expand and fill the holes in FOIA. OPEN is cosponsored by Senators Pat Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX), who have pushed for greater FOIA rights for some time now. As soon as they get the ability to pass the bill someone in Cornyn's party blocks it. We know that the secret hold comes from a Republican because it came through the leadership. This is yet another instance of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) hiding the identity of a secret holder. Josh at the Seminal has put together a list of senators to call and ask if they placed the secret hold. If you have a moment you should stop by and give your senator a call. Openthegovernment.org, Public Citizen, and the Federation of American Scientists have also put out a call to arms to unmask the secret holder. Do your part and make the call. If they can't end the practice of secret holds anytime soon than we may as well make the secrecy obsolete by unmasking the secret senator every single time.
Continue readingMapping a Member’s Schedule
Since the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet’s John Neurohr is able to read our minds I figure that I ought to give a demonstration of what we have been doing with the daily schedules that some members of Congress are posting. Currently most members of Congress, the press, and partisan outfits see the daily schedules as a target for cherry-picking “gotchas” like the recent fuss about Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand’s schedule showing a fundraiser for the congresswoman in Europe. Look at the schedule as a whole and not a series of single events and you get a different picture. Instead of one event that may be unseemly you will be able to tell a story that explains whether or not, in the meetings that the congressperson is holding, the member is fulfilling their representational duty to work with individuals and groups in the district. That’s why we decided to see what a Google map of the schedule might look like.
MAPLight.org and OpenSecrets.org in the News
We were very pleased by David Pogue's column yesterday in the New York Times drawing attention to MAPLight.org and OpenSecrets.org, two of our largest grantees. And Pogue's take on what he found at MAPLight.org:"The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that you have one..." is just what we hope users of MAPLight.org would feel.
So don't go curl up and pull a blanket over your head. Check out MAPLight.org and begin to ask your legislators some questions.
Continue readingLobbying Bill Vote Underway
Update: Lobbying bill passes!
Following up on their promise to pass an ethics and lobbying reform bill before the Memorial Day recess the Democratic majority brought the bill to the floor today. Voting on amendments to the bill is still underway but there have been some developments that already buck against the growing press accounts bemoaning the slow pace of the bill's passage. Despite supposed opposition from some Democrats the Chris Van Hollen sponsored lobbyist bundling disclosure bill passed by a wide margin, 382-37. The bill was strengthened further by a Republican measure, supported by freshman Democrats, that requires PACs to disclose bundled contributions as well.
Continue readingFOIA on a Floppy
Here's a picture of the most recent addition to the stack of FOIA clutter on my desk.
Luckily, Bill's computer still has a floppy drive so we could read the word document sent to us on a 3.5-inch diskette by the Department of Transportation. Responses to our FOIA request for congressional correspondence logs from Transportation have been trickling in slowly because each agency within the department has been replying separately.
The Department of Transportation is not the only government entity that's technologically challenged. The list is long. But the two responses we have received from the ...
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