Under the Trump administration, federal agencies have been removing important Web resources without proactive notice or justification. We should hold our government accountable to clearly explain its actions and not remove Web content when there’s no good reason for doing so.
Continue readingHelp make the next USASpending.gov better
What we're asking of Sunlight's community today is simple: Please go look at the designs and prototypes for the next USASpending.gov posted here and provide feedback.
Continue readingTreasury’s new USASpending.gov beta will evolve in the open
Yesterday, the Treasury Department launched an open beta website of the next generation of USASpending.gov. By launching its beta now, the Treasury is signaling a clear intent to conduct an open and collaborative process.
Continue readingAIG court decision shows influence of big banks on bailout
Why did AIG take the fall for the 2008 financial crisis while other big banks survived just fine?
Continue readingFixed Fortunes: Biggest corporate political interests spend billions, get trillions
Between 2007-2012, America’s most politically active corporations spent $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. A Sunlight Foundation analysis suggests, however, that what they gave pales compared to what they got: $4.4 trillion in federal benefits.
Continue readingStakeholder perspectives heard at DATA Act town hall
Last Friday, the Sunlight Foundation participated in a "data transparency town hall" hosted by the Treasury Department to hear from stakeholders on DATA Act implementation. Our comments are posted here.
Continue readingCircle September 30th for Data Transparency 2014
On Sept. 30th, the leading authorities on the creation and implementation of open data policy for our country are gathering. Data Transparency 2014, co-hosted by the Sunlight Foundation, couldn’t come at a more critical time.
Continue readingOMB’s DATA Act power grab
The Office of Management and Budget is pushing for changes that would gut the DATA Act, an important piece of federal spending legislation.
Continue reading12 Days of Open Data to Get You Through the New Year
Agencies are still inventorying their data holdings but it's already clear that President Barack Obama’s open data executive order is cluing the public into lots of information that wasn’t previously available or easily accessible. In the holiday spirit, Sunlight has put together 12 days of data sets. When you're not skiiing, try (data) diving!
Continue readingBig banks dominate Dodd-Frank meetings with regulators
This piece was prepared in collaboration with Drew Vogel In the two years since the mammoth Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act became law, federal regulators have heard overwhelmingly from the biggest banks, according to a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of financial regulatory agency meeting logs. The voices of reform-oriented groups have been much quieter – particularly in the past 12 months. Since July 21, 2010 (when the president signed Dodd-Frank), regulators at the three major banking regulatory agencies – Treasury, the Fed and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) – have reported meeting with 20 big banks and banking associations on average a combined 12.5 times per week – as compared to on average just 2.3 meetings with reform-oriented groups. The top 20 banks show up 1,298 times in meeting logs at the three agencies, while groups favoring tighter regulations of the financial markets show up just 242 times.
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