380,251. That is the number of pages contained in more than 5,000 campaign reports that the Secretary of the Senate's Office of Public Records scanned, processed, and sent to the FEC last year. That number emerged during testimony given by Secretary of the Senate Nancy Erickson to justify her budget request before the Senate Appropriations Committee's Legislative Branch Subcommittee this morning. Despite their frugal rhetoric, most Senators have refused to move past their costly, inefficient paper-based campaign finance filing system. As they try to find ways to trim budgets, they should eliminate the expensive, anachronistic, and opaque practice of filing their campaign finance reports on paper rather than electronically, as presidential and House candidates along with Political Action Committees have been doing for years.
Continue readingOnly Sunlight Can Lift Congress’ Ethics Cloud
Are Members of Congress using inside information gathered as part of their jobs to make financial investments (and get rich…er?)... View Article
Continue readingBudget and Deficit Transparency
Earlier this week, the Senate passed an amendment to the unemployment extenders bill that would require the Secretary of the... View Article
Continue readingElectronic Filing Finally Coming to the Senate?
The Hill reported yesterday some great news. Sen. Russ Feingold is preparing to re-introduce the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act,... View Article
Continue readingCongressional Lobbying Databases Updated
The Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate have updated their Lobbying Disclosure Act databases. (This may... View Article
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