The Sunlight Foundation, along with the Institute for Policy Innovation, OpenTheGovernment.org, Public Citizen and U.S. Public Interest Research Groups sent... View Article
Continue readingTransparency and the Obama presidency: Looking Back and Looking Forward – Video and Event Recap
How transparent has President Barack Obama's administration been? While the first term seemed to start with several bold initiatives, members of the transparency community have been disappointed with the apparent lack of initiative since then. Panelists gave the administration mixed reviews at the Dec. 3, 2012 Advisory Committee on Transparency event examining what's happened over the past four years and what in store for the next four. Participants in the panel discussion, moderated by Daniel Schuman, policy counsel at the Sunlight Foundation and director of the Advisory Committee on Transparency, had a hard time listing the Obama administration's accomplishments without mentioning caveats in the same breath. Anne Weismann, chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the administration's efforts may have been well intended but were not always well executed. The decision to release the White House visitor logs, for example, resulted in more transparency about who is trying to influence the executive branch, but also resulted in some staff taking meetings to coffee shops.
Continue readingThe Missing Data Behind The Plum Book
The latest compilation of more than 8,000 federal jobs known as the Plum Book is out, and for the first time it is available in print, digital, and mobile format. There's still something missing, though, with this list that holds interest for the public and Washington, DC, power brokers: the data behind it. Every four years, the Government Printing Office (GPO) compiles this publication of positions that "may be subject to noncompetitive appointment," as GPO puts it. The book is important because of the information it provides about who is chosen to fill presidential-appointed and other positions. In short, it is the best, most authoritative list of senior positions throughout the executive branch. It originated in the 1950's during the Eisenhower administration, when the Republican Party requested a list of positions the president could fill, according to GPO. The Plum Book has come out every four years just after the presidential election since 1960. Anyone viewing the book (whatever the format) can look up positions by agency, position title, appointment type, pay, term expiration, and more. It is an incredibly rich source of information that has many possible uses. There are still barriers to accessing that information, however. The book is available on the GPO website in text and as a PDF, neither of which is an open format that would make sorting or reusing the underlying data a simple task.
Continue readingTransparency and the Obama Presidency: Looking Back and Looking Forward
The Advisory Committee on Transparency will host an event on transparency in President Barack Obama's administration on Monday, December 3 at 2:00 pm in the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2237. When President Obama took office in 2009 he pledged to lead the most transparent administration in history. During his first term, he issued the Open Government Directive, set a new course for FOIA, and led the creation of the Open Government Partnership. At the same time, many observers have criticized the administration for lacking openness or failure to follow through in a number of important areas. We are pleased to host a panel discussion on the evolving norms and behaviors of the Obama administration toward transparency. A panel of experts will explain how the transparency landscape has changed over the past four years. They will also look ahead at prospects for further advances and possible impediments to future progress in the Obama administration's second term. Panelists:
- Anne Weismann: Chief Counsel, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
- Hudson Hollister: Executive Director, the Data Transparency Coalition
- Josh Gerstein (Invited): White House Reporter, POLITICO
- Moderator Daniel Schuman: Policy Counsel at the Sunlight Foundation and Director of the Advisory Committee on Transparency
We hope you can join us. Please RSVP to http://snlg.ht/ACTobama
The Advisory Committee on Transparency educates policymakers on transparency-related issues, problems, and solutions and shares ideas with members of the Congressional Transparency Caucus. It hosts events to discuss important and wide-ranging transparency policy issues with experts from a variety of backgrounds and develops educational publications and provides timely information to the public and members of Congress. Learn more at http://transparencycaucus.org.
Continue readingHow Washington State is using Legislative privilege to stifle Right to Know
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation or any employee thereof. Sunlight Foundation is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information within the guest blog.
Jason Mercier is the Director of the Center for Government Reform at Washington Policy Center. He is also a contributing editor of the Heartland 
Institute's Budget & Tax News, a columnist for Northwest Daily Marker, a contributing author at State Budget Solutions, serves on the board of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, and was an advisor to the 2002 Washington State Tax Structure Committee.
In 1972, Washington State voters overwhelmingly enacted Initiative 276, providing citizens with access to most records maintained by state and local government. The new law created the Public Records Act (PRA). The preamble to the PRA says:
“The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created.
Court Decision Should Embolden More Action on Transparency
Last week, the US Court for the District of Columbia rejected a challenge to a longstanding federal law that bans... View Article
Continue readingOnline Contracts Monitoring: First Year Lessons Learned
Sunlight’s International Fellow presents an up-for-grabs contracts monitoring platform and year-one takeaways. In late 2011, the government in the small country of Slovakia took a bold policy step mandating almost all public contracts and invoices be published online. A reaction to series of scandals this was done in hopes of bringing unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability (read more here). However, the official portal government launched in early 2012 was half-baked, missing full-text search, documents preview or space for comments. While the policy produced more data (“transparency,” if you will), it left accountability untouched.
Continue readingRethinking civic participation
What would a 21st century town hall meeting look like? Is there a better way to hold public meetings than to give each person three minutes at a microphone to have their say? The city of Bell, California, might have some of the answers.
Continue readingCreating better public access to information
Public- and private-sector experts from Mexico and the United States explored how laws granting public access to government information can be more effective at a recent Wilson Center event. Mexico's freedom of information law is hailed by some experts as a “gold standard” because it set a high bar: treating all information as public rather than secret. Those same experts agree, however, that legal and cultural changes are needed to make the system more effective. Mexico is still working to create a supporting set of laws for its freedom of information centerpiece. IFAI, the autonomous government body overseeing freedom of information in Mexico, is working to gain more enforcement power that will help it ensure government officials comply with the law. As the law stands now, IFAI has little power to tell a federal body that they must comply with freedom of information standards.
Continue readingThe IRS Should Stop Ignoring Dark Money
For voters disgusted by nasty campaign ads and frustrated that they don’t know who is paying for them, there is plenty of blame to go around. The Supreme Court for allowing the dark money takeover of our elections, Congress for failing to enact the DISCLOSE Act, the Federal Election Commission for its failure to enforce laws already on the books. Add to that list the IRS, for its apparent willingness to look the other way while millions of dollars are laundered through fake nonprofit organizations whose only purpose is to influence elections.
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