While we continue to hope that this White House would adopt a democratic norm that had been established over the past decade, we strongly support Congress institutionalizing this transparency reform and hope that the Republican leadership will choose to sponsor the bills.
Continue readingOnline search for Obama-era White House visitor logs goes offline
The Web-based interface for the Obama White House visitor logs is gone. We hope the Trump administration will see the value of online disclosure in the 21st century and commits to
Continue readingDNC paid $4.5 million for events at White House
A new Sunlight analysis of campaign finance records from the Democratic National Committee finds party operatives have made frequent use of the White House grounds during the past four years.
Continue readingThe News Without Transparency: Obama Rewards Campaign Contributors
An in-depth analysis of Obama’s 2008 campaign contributors conducted by iWatch News in 2011 determined that in certain circumstances major bundlers... View Article
Continue readingAnother renewable energy loan recipient hires lobbyists, has fundraising ties to Obama
Abound Solar, another participant in the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program, which is facing scrutiny, has hired Washington lobbyists because of that attention, a company spokesperson said.
The lobbying—by former government officials with ties to Congress and the Department of Energy—started in mid-October, about six weeks after Solyndra, the recipient of a $535 million loan from DOE, filed for bankruptcy. Like Solyndra, one of Abound Solar’s key investors is an Obama fund-raiser, although there is no evidence that the Obama administration favored the companies because of this connection.
The Abound investor is billionaire heiress Pat ...
Continue readingVisitor Logs: Presidential CEO Meeting Not the First
The much-touted Presidential meeting with CEOs held earlier today was not the first time that President Obama has met with... View Article
Continue readingForeign Transparency Policies the US Government Could Learn From
The White House blog recently wrote about Obama’s trip to India and mentioned that US-based organizations could learn from Indian... View Article
Continue readingThe Caribou Coffee Lobby
I love coffee, espeicially when I get to use my smart coffee mug (more on that in this Inc article).... View Article
Continue readingTransparency Around the World
(Note: this post has been updated since it was first published—see below) It’s Sunshine Week again, and in that spirit... View Article
Continue readingLobbyists and White House Visitors
Recently and continuously, the White House has been releasing the "White House Visitor Logs," showing America who is coming in to meet with the President and his staff. At the same time, the Center for Responsive Politics releases cleaned up data on lobbyist filings. We thought it'd be interesting to find the intersect between the names in both sets of data.
After the jump, you'll find our results along relevant information from both sets of data. Now-- this is important: just because the names match doesn't mean they're the same person. Because the White House doesn't release any other form of identity information besides the name, we're unable to tell whether or not the name in one dataset actually refers to the same person in the other. John Adams in one dataset may be a different John Adams in another.
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