Here at the Reporting Group, we’ve always wanted to tie the fundraising invitations in our Party Time database to actual donations reported to the Federal Election Commission by a politician or a political action committee--to be able to show a donor gave money to a politician at a certain event.
It’s nearly impossible, and there's a number of reasons we can't--not least of which is that dates in FEC records don't necessarily correspond to the day a contribution was given. (See here for an explanation.) Even when there's a disclosure intended to shed light ...
In House and Senate, appropriators got most contributions from earmark recipients
The Center for Responsive Politics and Taxpayers for Common Sense -- two of our favorite organizations -- have released their comprehensive earmark and influence database for fiscal year 2010 requests.
Among House members, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., a member of the Appropriations Committee, tops the list of members who have gotten campaign contributions from earmark recipients (complete breakdown here). Interesting to note that Moran's top donor so far, Mantech International, got a $2 million earmark from the Northern Virginia congressman.
In the Senate, Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye received the most contributions from earmark beneficiaries. Inouye secured earmarks for his ...
Net neutrality: Do campaign contributions tell the whole story?
After 74 Democratic members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski warning that the FCC should not advance net neutrality rules without explicit direction from Congress, Free Press put together a page showing career campaign contributors from PACs, employees and lobbyists of interests that oppose the measure, intended to keep the Internet a level playing field.
The biggest recipient of telecom campaign cash was Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who took in more than $128,000--over the course of an 18-year career, that averages out to about $14,400 an election cycle. Four ...
Critics say federal student privacy law misused by colleges
Reports of NCAA football violations, lists of who gets free tickets to big games, and disciplinary records of students found responsible for sexual assault are among the records that U.S. colleges and universities have refused to release, citing a federal student privacy law. Last month, a Wyoming community college even went to court to stop a local newspaper from publishing a leaked internal report about a trip the college president took to Costa Rica.
In these examples and many others, the colleges said their hands were tied because of the need to abide by the Family Educational Rights and ...
Disappearmarks: Buffalo’s Switcheroo saves earmark
Time was running out for an $11.8 million federal earmark to redevelop the Inner Harbor of the Buffalo River where it empties into Lake Erie. Like most earmarks, the recipient – the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation – had only three years to spend the funds before the money lapsed. In Buffalo, that meant the corporation had until October 2007, or else lose it for good.
There were once grand plans for the ... Continue reading
Study: Earmarks, federal spending follow political power, inhibit economic growth
Year after year, the late John Murtha used his influence on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee to bring tens of millions of dollars in earmarks to his district--hard hit by the declining fortunes of the steel and coal industries--to in effect create a new economic base fueled on federal spending. Sen. Robert Byrd did the same for West Virginia. But do such efforts actually work? Does spending taxpayer money spur private sector development?
A new study from researchers at the Harvard Business School suggests that the answer is no; that public spending doesn't ... Continue reading
CPI’s Jim Morris talks about BP’s OSHA violations
Our colleague Jim Morris, who runs Data Mine, our joint project with the Center for Public Integrity, talked about his story on BP's pattern of OSHA violations at its refineries on ABC yesterday. Jim appears at 10:10 in the clip; if the player below doesn't work it's available here.
Probably worth noting that Jim had to request the data under the Freedom of Information Act.
BP had no plan for Deepwater Horizon disaster
British Petroleum did not have an emergency response plan for its Deepwater Horizon drill rig; such plans direct personnel to the proper procedures for responding to incidents like the current spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
In testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on May 19, Liz Birnbaum, the former Director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) who resigned yesterday morning, said the reason that BP did not complete an Oil Spill Response Plan was a reported decrease in the rig’s “worst-case scenario discharge” from 250,000 barrels a day to 160,000.
BP calculated the volume ...
Oil spill: BP pipelines trigger safety violations
This week, we've been gathering resources for reporters looking to put the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill into context. While the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) doesn't have jurisdiction over the safety of the offshore wells themselves, they do enforce safety regulations for oil pipelines and can tell us if BP has violated any of these regulations of late.
The records show that civil penalties have been levied on BP pipelines for safety violations ten times since 2002 (the earliest year the data is available online), and three more have been ...
Oil Spill: Wildlife data shows several species may be affected
As the millions of gallons of oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, the Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Services has started an uphill battle with their rescue efforts. The agency has deployed a 200-person workforce in the area who are reviewing the natural habitats affected by the oil spill.
For environmentalists and reporters covering the vast and prolonged damage the oil spill can cause, here’s a list of wildlife refuges that can be affected released by the Fisheries and Wildlife Services.
And, to check on various species of endangered wildlife that could be affected ...
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