One year after the 2015 State Integrity Investigation, what's changed in campaign finance law across the fifty states?
Continue readingBridging the gap between research and practice in criminal justice
With evidence-based practices becoming increasingly popular in many areas of criminal justice, the external push for academics to engage in policy decisions is logical. How such a connection can be forged sustainably, though, is less obvious.
Continue readingWhat it takes to be a major player in policymaking
What makes an organization like AARP so influential on Capitol Hill? It takes more than lobbying and campaign contributions to have a voice in policymaking.
Continue readingWho has a say in Washington: Policymakers listen to interest groups instead of the public
The American public believes that “the government is pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves” rather than “the benefit of all of the people.” But is there actual evidence to prove this?
Continue readingAmerican Oligarchy: How the preferences of elites shape policy outcomes
Time and again we find that corporate interests are far more involved in the political process than ordinary citizens. Now, a recent paper provides empirical evidence finding this imbalance is actually a systemic feature of modern American democracy.
Continue readingHow Congress Cut its Policy Expertise
In the past 20 years, Congress has effectively allowed its legislative support branches to wither and stripped away its ability to process information. It has cut back its ability to review, contextualize, and evaluate information in a way that creates informed policy. Lorelei Kelly, leader of the Smart Congress pilot project at the New America Foundation, looks into this trend in a new paper: "Congress' Wicked Problem." It explores topics we have discussed in a series of posts on the House and Senate. She explains how much of the cutting to the policymaking infrastructure of Congress came in the mid-1990s. That was also the era of cutting the shared staff who had historically built knowledge and expertise around certain topics. Some members of Congress used these shared staff to their advantage, giving relatives and friends plum positions with little real work, but for the most part shared staff were a valuable asset. A rule change in 1995 cut pooled funding for staff and essentially eviscerated the caucus system. Kelly does a fantastic job of explaining in detail what impacts that cut had, showing how the knowledge gap was filled with a new top-down system of information handed out by party leaders. The paper makes an important distinction between information and knowledge in Congress. While lawmakers might receive plenty of information from lobbyists and interest groups, they have a weakened ability to seek other views and context for the flood of spin coming from K Street. Another key change Kelly notes is the elimination of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) in 1995. Congress created the nonpartisan agency in 1972 to look at the impacts of technology policy decisions. After OTA was cut, there were calls for lobbyists to fill the gap. Sunlight and others called for restoring funding to OTA or some other nonpartisan source of expertise. We are glad to see someone exposing how Congress has weakened its ability to understand complex policy decisions, and we hope it will spark more discussion of what can be done to stop the cutting of knowledge.
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 readingSunlight Discusses Fiscal Cliff on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal
This morning the Sunlight Foundation's Senior Fellow Lee Drutman joined Washington Journal to discuss the "fiscal cliff" and his analysis of the many powerful interests lobbying on this issue.
Continue readingThe Policy Team is Hiring
Are you interested in working towards a more transparent government? Do you want to put your skills to use in... View Article
Continue readingSuccess Has Many Parents, Colleagues and Friends – Thank You!
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the Sunlight Foundation. It is exciting to reflect on how far we’ve come,... View Article
Continue reading