Although other offices and agencies within DoD indicated that responding to our FOIAs could take a while, none had so far turned us down. We've gotten acknowledgement ...
Continue readingCongressional Web Site Study: Correction
We just re-ran some of the numbers for the congressional Web site survey, in particular the number of members whose sites scored 40 points or more. The good news is that the results were better than we initially reported--162 member Web sites had a passing grade, which means that they provided, at a minimum, basic information on the member's official duties in Congress, from the bills they sponsor to the committees they serve on to electronic contact information (an email or Web-based form) which the public can use to write them. That's much better than the number we originally reported, which was that 499 member sites failed to do that--it's actually 374 that fall short on our survey. That number is high, of course, but much better than 499, which of course is good news--the purpose of this exercise was to evaluate the extent to which congressional Web sites functioned as tools for transparency. When it comes to questions of what members do in their official capacity in Washington, it appears that about 30 percent have the answers online.
Continue readingSunlight Network: Tell your Senator to File Electronically
Take action before the committee mark-up of the Senate electronic filing bill tomorrow by asking your Senators to support a clean bill. The Sunlight Network has a petition (click here for petition) ready for you to sign and send to your Senators asking them to support S. 223 with no additional amendments added. Currently the Senate files their campaign contribution reports on paper, costing an extra $250,000 and delaying the public availability of campaign contributors until after an election. This bill would solve those two problems by requiring Senators to file these reports electronically. Please go take action to help move the Senate into the 21st Century. If you are from Hawaii, New York, or Connecticut your letters are incredibly important at this moment.
Continue readingThe Wisdom of Crowds: Political Reporting Style
Arianna Huffington is entering the world of citizen journalism with her announcement of a new project: The Wisdom of Crowds Hits the Campaign Trail. It's got the makings of a great effort: she's recruiting citizen journalists from around the country to cover the major presidential candidates and asking each of them to contribute to a candidate-specific group blog -- offering written updates, campaign tidbits, on-the-scene observations, photos, or original video. The goal is to provide more sources of information, and more outside-the-mainstream voices on the upcoming presidential campaign. She's got the readership to make it happen.
Continue readingRep. Goodlatte Moves into Passing Territory
Just had a call from Rep. Bob Goodlatte's office--he does provide two of the items we asked about (bills he's sponsored or co-sponsored, and his statements from the Congressional Record (which aren't all in one place--here's one from the same page as the text of the first bill he sponsored this session). I've adjusted his score--Goodlatte now gets a passing grade of 40.
Continue readingRep. Issa Provides a List of Earmarks
Add Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to the list of members who publish lists of earmarks (Issa's for 2006 is here). His chief of staff, Dale Neugebauer, emailed this a little while ago:
In your rating of Rep. Issa's web site you noted that our site did not include a list of earmark requests. Rep. Issa did publicly release the list of 2006 earmark requests and posted the press release on that section of our website. Here's the link... Continue reading
Cool. Sunlight Now in Second Life (Thanks to an API…)
Here is a cool development. Steve Nelson is displaying information on members of Congress inside Second Life (SLurl location) using the Sunlight Labs's still-in-beta API (Application Programming Interface).
Citizen Journalists Find Majority of Congressional Web Sites are not Tools for Transparency
Rep. John T. Doolittle, R-Calif., Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and three other members post their daily schedules--including who they're meeting with--on their official, taxpayer-supported Web sites. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, both offer lists of the earmarks they've requested. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., posts information on his interventions with government regulatory agencies. Meanwhile, 374 congressional Web sites failed to provide basic information on what the member does in Washington, from providing the name or names of committees served on to the bills they sponsor, citizen journalists found.
Continue readingMy first two weeks…
My first two weeks working on the real time project has involved sending out FOIA requests to as many as 80 federal agencies. We are asking for logs of correspondence between members of Congress and each agency. Most of them have been via e-mail or online forms and around 25 others via regular mail.
Since this is going to be a monthly feature, I was hoping that FOIA officers would send us the data at the end of every month, but that seems increasingly unlikely after a few conversations I've had with FOIA officers at the Environmental Protection Agency ...
Continue readingBennett Trying to Muck-up Electronic Filing Bill
Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced that the Senate electronic filing bill mark-up will be held next Wednesday, March 28th. During the Senate Rules and Administration Committee hearing on Sen. Russ Feingold's electronic filing bill ranking member Bob Bennett declared his intention to introduce amendments during the committee mark-up of the bill. Bennett promised that these amendments would be non-controversial. It appears that Bennett isn't going to keep his promise. The Campaign Finance Institute is sending out a letter to Congress demanding that the committee approve the bill as a stand alone measure with no amendments. In the letter Bennett is said to be introducing a highly controversial, partisan amendment that, if attached, would make the bill D.O.A. on the floor of the Senate. Read a section of the letter:
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