Sunlight’s Bill Allison was on Brian Lehrer Live discussing efforts to put the proposed stimulus bill online and in a... View Article
Continue readingTechnologies Exponential Explosion
Earlier this week, Daniel De Groot, writing at Open Left, linked to a fascinating 23-minute TED lecture given by technology futurist Ray Kurzweil. In the lecture, Kurzweil gives a mind-blowing display of how technological progress is happening exponentially and not linearly. De Groot says he hopes people will think about the impact this revolution will have on politics. This is worth watching
Continue readingLike Swimming in Molasses
We are not naïve. At Sunlight, when we learned that Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was convening a task force to address the issue of earmarks, we knew the odds of progress were slim. McConnell is an appropriator, a champion of earmarks and an ardent foe of almost every conceivable good government reform. He also has a keen political ear. So by forming a task force on earmark reform, he could arguably demonstrate action without actually moving. As "The Hill" reports here, Senator McConnell not only continues placing obstacles to moderate reform, but he is resisting a push for earmark transparency coming from within his own party.
How did McConnell undertake the issue without putting his caucus at risk of actually having to change its ways on earmarks? He appointed a working group with members on such opposite ends of the earmark spectrum odds were against success. Then he told them to come up with a unanimous recommendation. When they did that, McConnell moved the goal line again, saying he would attempt to work with the Democratic Leader to consider creating a Senate Rule the encompassed the suggestions. Even the most casual political observer wouldn't be surprised to find that those "negotiations" came to nothing.
Continue readingFix the FEC
It's wonder no one ever thought of launching a Fix The FEC campaign before. Thanks to CREW it's been done and you can pitch in to help.
There are so many things wrong with this agency that it would be hard for me to even know where to begin, but CREW is focusing on the lack of commissioners which puts the agency's oversight of the current campaigns at a complete standstill, as in nonexistent. And guess who they are blaming? Yup, none other that Sen. "No-Electronic-Filing-for-Senators" Mitch McConnell. The full background is here.
Use their tool to write to Sen. McConnell and tell him what you think about his holding up a vote on the FEC nominees that have a majority supporting them for their appointment. McConnell has a bad habit of stopping the Senate in any attempt to assure better accountability for its work.
Continue readingCall for Ensign to Stop Obstructing Electronic Filing Bill
Going on eight months now the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, requiring senators to file their campaign finance reports electronically, has been held up by proceedural maneuvers from the Republican side. After a series of secret holds placed on the bill were thwarted once secret holds were banned (Senators with secret holds must reveal their identity after 72 hours) Sen. John Ensign blocked the bill by offering a poison pill amendment that lacked relevance to the bill. Ensign's amendment, revealed on this blog to have originated from the offices of Mitch McConnell, requires outside organizations filing ethics complaints to reveal their donor list. For months now, this irrelevant, poison pill amendment has blocked a simple change in how Senators file their campaign finance reports that would help make the data more readily accessible to the voting public. Now a coalition of groups, including a number of conservative groups, has formed to ask Ensign to drop his amendment and allow the electronic filing bill to pass. The groups include:
Alliance for Justice
Americans for the Preservation of Liberty
The American Conservative Union
James Bopp Jr., General Counsel James Madison Center for Free Speech
Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest
The Free Speech Coalition
Gun Owners of America,
National Center for Public Policy Research
OMB Watch
The full letter is after the jump.
Continue readingAnd the FEC May Still Get Better
Last week it seemed almost inevitable that Hans Von Spakovsky, a nominee to the Federal Election Commission and former Justice Department employee with a track record of minority voter suppression, would sail through the Senate after he was reported out of the Rules and Administration Committee in a block with the other three FEC nominees. Sen. Mitch McConnell wanted the group of four voted on as a package in the full Senate as well and Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid looked to be acquiescing to these demands.
The Unanimous Consent vote was expected to happen today but a group of Democrats, led by Sen. Russ Feingold and Sen. Barack Obama, has decided to throw a wrench into these plans. Feingold and Obama are not only demanding that Von Spakovsky receive a separate vote from the other FEC candidates -- much like Bradley Smith did back in 2000 -- but that he reach the 60 vote threshold that has become increasingly the norm in the Senate. Sources say that other Senators are joining this cause including Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Sherrod Brown. I wrote last week that we should "hope the Senate will try to restore some respect for the commission and find a way to block this nomination," and apparently some Senators are willing to do so. Good for them.
Continue readingAnd the Earmark Winner for Ohio and Kentucky Is….
The Cincinnati Enquirer shines a light on the federal dollars hauled in by Greater Cincinnati's nine-member House and Senate delegation. When it comes to delivering the pork, the paper found that Sen. Mitch McConnell is the area's most powerful member. McConnell, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, hauled in $391 million in federal funding for local projects in budget bills being worked on in Congress, more than 1½ times the amount that the area's other eight lawmakers got -- combined.
In a dramatic contrast, House Minority Leader John Boehner is a teetotaller. He doesn't believe in earmarks and hasn't asked for any money for local projects in the 13 spending bills that make up the federal budget.
The Enquirer built their own search engine that allows readers to search what earmarks local members have gotten in spending bills that are pending in Washington. Update: It bears mentioning that the database shows just how lousy the new Senate disclosure requirements on earmarks is. There are no company names. Just a general description of what the money should be spent on. The Enquirer writes about Earmark Watch, a joint project of Taxpayers for Common Sense and the Sunlight Foundation.
Continue readingKudos to The Enquirer. Hopefully more papers will do the same and start following what their congressional delegation is doing with our money.
Ensign Refuses to Yield, Admits Working With McConnell
Sen. John Ensign continues to transparently block the electronic filing bill by refusing to back down from a ridiculous amendment requiring outside groups filing ethics complaints to reveal their funding sources. In stating his refusal to yield Ensign also admitted that he is working with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the author of this absurd amendment, to block passage of the electronic filing bill. The Hill reports, "Ensign added that he consulted with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) before deciding on his strategy, deeming the push for the amendment 'something we did together … we discussed it. I felt it was a good idea for me to do it.'" (Emphasis added.) McConnell has stated previously, including in the last few days, that he supports the electronic filing bill. It appears that he is being far less than honest.
Ensign and McConnell should do the senatorial thing and step out of the way as Sen. Bob Bennett did when he tried to offer a poison pill amendment. Rules Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein has offered Ensign a fair hearing in her committee on his amendment in exchange for dropping his objection to electronic filing. It's time for Ensign and McConnell to stop blocking transparency legislation.
Continue readingEnsign Amendment Actually a McConnell Amendment
On Monday, S. 223, the Senate electronic filing bill was blocked for a third time, this time by Sen. John Ensign who offered an amendment that would require outside organizations filing ethics complaints to disclose their funding sources. This non-germane amendment did not originate from Ensign’s offices. Sunlight has learned that last week Democratic offices were given a Unanimous Consent agreement that would have allowed the Senate to move to S. 223 only if they agreed to take up a an amendment identical to the one introduced on Monday by Senator John Ensign. The consent agreement came from none other than the offices of Sen. Mitch McConnell, whom the Sunlight Foundation has targeted as a culprit in covering up the identity of the anonymous Senators previously blocking the bill. That the “McConnell amendment” is now being offered by Senator Ensign comes as no surprise to long time McConnell watchers, who are well aware that when it comes to reform, McConnell is often hiding behind the scenes, pulling all the strings. . The document shows that the effort to block S. 223 originates not from the offices of Sen. Ensign but from the Minority Leader’s office. So, McConnell wasn’t hiding the identity of a fellow senator, he was hiding himself!
Continue readingUpping the Ante on McConnell as Senate Republicans Try Trickery
Who knew a little bill requiring senators to file their campaign finance reports electronically could cause such a problem on Capitol Hill? Today, Senate Republicans under the stewardship of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tried their hand at a parliamentary trick to add poison pill amendments to S. 223. When Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to move S. 1, the Senate' lobbying reform package, to conference committee Sen. Bob Bennett attempted to add S. 223 while reserving the right to add another amendment. Bennett likely wanted to slip in the same amendment that he tried to add to S.223 when it was in committee. That amendment would allow party committees, like the RNC or the DSCC, to coordinate campaign activities with candidate committees. Bennett's amendment is widely opposed by the majority Democrats and would not only make S. 223's passage impossible in conference or in the House of Representatives, but would endanger the entire lobbying and ethics reform package. Reid scuttled this parliamentary trickery by objecting to Bennett's proposition. The Senate went into convulsions and recessed without advancing S. 1 to conference committee. (There are some conflicting accounts of exactly how this proceeded.))
Since the Senate minority is upping the ante with procedural tricks, the Sunlight Foundation has decided to up the ante on Mitch McConnell. Today, Sunlight announced the extension of the deadline for our campaign to get Mitch McConnell on the record responding to questions about the continued blocking of S. 223. Not only is the deadline extended but the prize money is doubled. You will now receive $1,000 if you are the first to submit a video of McConnell responding to questions about the bill. Check out What's McConnell Hiding? for more details.
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