NEWS ROUNDUP:
- President Obama's decision to turn his campaign into a nonprofit that will accept unlimited corporate cash has drawn some criticism across the political spectrum. ProPublica looked into some of the other money-policy flip-flops Obama has made in the past few years. (ProPublica)
- The House Small Business Committee is aiming to make it easier for companies without lawyers or lobbyists to keep track of federal regulations that might impact them. (Roll Call)
- The Justice Department filed a brief asking the Supreme Court not to allow direct corporate campaign contributions. (Thomson Reuters)
- States and municipalities are increasingly creating positions for chief innovation officers, who are tasked with a wide variety of efforts related to better uses of technology. (GovTech)
- Government use of open source software as an alternative to proprietary software is increasing, and Government Technology explored some of the benefits and challenges of that move. (GovTech)
- Liberal and conservative groups are expressing concerns about the possible effects of proposed ethics reforms in Georgia that would label citizen volunteers as lobbyists, among other things. (Public Integrity)
- A bill has been introduced in Rhode Island that would prohibit lobbyists from making any political contributions to a member of the General Assembly during legislative session. (Lobby Comply Blog)
- A recent poll in Europe found a majority of people surveyed are concerned about the role of lobbyists and want increased transparency in the European Union. (Access Info) Continue reading
What Enron’s political e-mails tell us about corporate lobbying
During its investigation into wrongdoing into Enron, The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission made public almost 500,000 internal company e-mails. These e-mails provide a unique look into the workings of the company, including how the company conducted its political operations. A few years ago, my friend and Georgetown Political Science Professor Daniel J. Hopkins approached me about analyzing what was in these e-mails. The results of our research are now published in the latest issue of Legislative Studies Quarterly, and a copy of our paper, “The Inside View: Using the Enron E-mail Archive to Understand Corporate Political Attention” can be downloaded here. To sum up our findings briefly, the e-mails show Enron’s political operations as very engaged in the narrow details of policy , keeping close tabs on daily developments and devoting considerable resources to agency rulemaking. Meanwhile, we found only sporadic discussion of campaign finance.
Continue readingDocket Wrench: Exposing Trends in Regulatory Comments
Today the Sunlight Foundation unveils Docket Wrench, an online research tool to dig into regulatory comments and uncover patterns among millions of documents.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 1/31/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- The Office of Congressional Ethics released its 2012 end-of-year report showing it forwarded 13 matters to the House Ethics Committee for review of 32 matters it opened. (Roll Call)
- Two cases before the House Ethics Committee are being held until the panel has its first organizational meeting and can officially begin taking action. (Roll Call)
- The Government Accountability Office issued a report calling for better interagency contracting practices in the federal government. (GovExec)
- The American League of Lobbyists has ended its contract with its lobbying company, which had lobbied on issues such as campaign finance laws and regulations. (Public Integrity)
- The FEC increased contribution limits on individuals for the 2014 election cycle. Individuals will be able to contribute up to $5,200 for a candidate and $32,400 for a national party committee. (Roll Call)
- Democratic members of Congress praised the House Majority PAC in a new video, saying the PAC helped them "fight back" against Republican PACs. (Public Integrity)
- Chris Vein, former deputy CTO of the White House, is settling into his new role as chief innovation officer for Global Information and Communications Technology Development at the World Bank. (GovTech)
- Carl Hoecker, who was inspector general for the U.S. Capitol Police, has been appointed as the Securities and Exchange Commission's inspector general. (ExecutiveGov)
2Day in #OpenGov 1/30/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- While Uruguay became a regional leader with their 2008 FOI law citizens were not taking advantage of the new rights. www.quesabes.org makes it easier for citizens to make FOI requests. (Tech President)
- New York Mayor, and billionaire, Michael Bloomberg has beefed up his presence in Washington over the past two years, increasingly engaging on issues from guns to infrastructure. He has used a combination of New York's lobbying office, his own voice, and outside lobbying groups hired by organizations that he has helped create. (Politico)
- Rep. Ed Markey, who is running to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat left vacant by John Kerry's appointment to lead the State department, is taking a page from the playbook of fellow Bay State politician, and potential rival, Scott brown by pledging to try and keep outside money out of the race. (Politico)
- Chicago is expanding their 311 system in an attempt to reach wider audiences. As a component of the cities Open311 system users can now access features via text message. (Government Technology)
- The US Government requested more user information from Twitter in 2012 than in 2011, the first year the company tracked such requests. Twitter claims it requires a search warrant before granting access. (The Hill)
- Opinion: Imposing a tax on moves through the revolving door might dissuade the practice. (USA Today)
How MuniLand Sees Cities
As part of our municipal work here at Sunlight, we're inviting various people to share their take on what makes a city and why transparency at this level is important. Today's post is from Cate Long, a guest contributor to Reuters.com on the municipal bond market. By Cate Long Alisha Green of Sunlight Foundation is working on a project to identify the ways that different types of data are used to describe cities. She put up a great post that sketches out a number of ways to view a city demographically, including population density, unemployment and housing. She asked me recently to write about how I personally view cities. I think of cities almost entirely as cash flow machines that collect taxes and provide social services. That is muniland. Here are Alisha’s questions and my answers: 1. From your point of view, what is a city? Cities are legal entities that are incorporated to provide essential services; especially police, fire, education and water and sewer systems. Depending on the state, cities have legal authority to enter contracts, collect specific types of taxes and maintain judicial systems. Many cities also provide more expansive social services including care of the elderly and disabled and maintenance of parks and hospitals.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 1/29/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Data.gov, with help from a team of Presidential Innovation Fellows, is getting a citizen friendly redesign that will highlight how open data resources are already being used in the private sector. The new approach can be seen at alpa.data.gov (Fed Scoop)
- Samsung is revving up its lobbying operation to go along with its move to the front in the smartphone wars. The South Korean company spent around $800,000 on lobbying last year, more than in any previous year. (Politico)
- While speculation continues swirl about Hillary Clinton's plans for the 2016 presidential race, multiple PACs have sprung up to support her when, and if, she decides to run. (Public Integrity)
- Despite losing her lucrative gig at Fox News, Sarah Palin still has an avenue to push her political agenda. Her super PAC has over $1 million in the bank. Most powerful PACs keep smaller amounts of cash on hand unless preparing for a campaign push. (Public Integrity)
- The FDA recently turned to table technology to improve its data collection. The new system helps streamline farm safety inspections, allowing for instant reporting of issues. (Government Technology)
- After a local open government group filed a FOIA suit the Washington, DC Council changed its rules to ensure that council members and staff cannot avoid the FOIA by doing business on their personal emails. (NFOIC)
18 New Ways of Visualizing A City
The way we visualize and compare cities says much about our understanding of how they work. As part of our ongoing exploration of what makes a city, we wanted to survey how people are using data to describe the political, geographical and social realities cities face. Below, we've compiled some unique visualizations. Some of these center around cities in the common sense of the word, focusing on large urban areas, but we think these images as a group help expand the understanding of the diversity of all kinds of municipalities. We aren't demographers, but we aren't working in a vacuum, either. As we continue to engage in open data work, we hope to contribute to the kind of information that powers these visuals and help create the resources for the next wave of municipal understanding.
POPULATION DENSITY
1. This 2010 U.S. Census map, from a report about population change, shows population-weighted density by metropolitan statistical area. That's a complicated way of essentially saying the map shows how tightly packed people are on average in metropolitan areas, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. The map shows how people generally are more condensed in metropolitan areas along the East and West coasts than they are in metropolitan areas in the middle of the country.
Continue reading
2Day in #OpenGov 1/28/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Libya is backing off earlier pledges to deliver greater transparency and will not reveal details of its oil sales this year. New Libyan leadership had initially promised more transparency after widespread corruption in the pre-revolutionary government. (Trust Law)
- Many of K Street's biggest firms saw revenues fall in 2012, but some smaller shops are bucking the trend and snagging new clients. (The Hill)
- Dark money groups have turned their attentions, and wallets, towards defeating Chuck Hagel, President Obama's nominee to lead the defense department. (New York Times)
- Many senior aides on Capitol Hill that work on energy and environmental issues have departed their positions in recent months, citing the partisan gridlock. (National Journal)
- Google's flu data has captivated many this season, but it is only one of a variety of systems tracking flue trends. (National Journal)
- A three year old task to evaluate 361 million pages of classified documents to determine which could be released to the public has been completed, according the the National Archives and Records Administration. 90 million historical pages have been released or reclassified. (Government Executive)
Roundup of Recent Revolving Door Work
The old Washington habit of using government positions and relationships to a land a lobbying gig continues to make news.
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