NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Ethics conflicts for departing members: Lawmakers leaving Congress might have to excuse themselves from certain votes due to conflicts of interest as they contemplate their next job. (The Hill)
- Congress cut out of fiscal cliff talks: Most members of Congress are in the dark when it comes to knowing what's being discussed in meetings regarding the so-called "fiscal cliff." (NPR)
- Democrats prepare counter move on net neutrality: House Democrats might introduce new legislation related to net neutrality if a court throws out the regulations. (POLITICO)
New York Proposed Regulations Move Toward Greater Campaign Finance Disclosure
Yesterday, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman attempted to throw down the gauntlet on campaign finance disclosure regulations for New... View Article
Continue readingSitegeist: Uncover the Data Around You
Today the Sunlight Foundation unveils our latest app to reinforce the power of the data around you. It's called Sitegeist, a simple iPhone and Android app that presents a huge amount of information from disparate sources in straight-forward infographics.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 12/13/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Groups ask for OCE to continue: Several good-government groups asked House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to fill at least four seats in the Office of Congressional Ethics before the panel ceases to exist. If the seats go unfilled, the panel will expire. (The Hill)
- K Street aims to steer fiscal cliff talk: Lobbyists representing business interests are hoping to steer talk about the so-called "fiscal cliff" in the best interest of their clients. The fiscal cliff negotiations have provided a boost to lobbying firms. (Roll Call)
- Chinese firm fights reputation: A Chinese company accused of posing a security threat to the United States is ramping up its lobbying efforts to fight the bad reputation. (The Hill)
2Day in #OpenGov 12/12/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- State Department Tweets up for review? The State Department is allegedly considering a policy that would force staff to submit their tweets for review days in advance of posting. (FCW)
- White House continues move to open source: The White House appears to be increasingly moving toward sharing code for its websites and letting others reuse that code. (GovTech)
- Boehner aide to lobby shop: Jeff Strunk, a floor aide to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is going to the lobby shop Forbes-Tate. (Roll Call)
3 Transparency Milestones For Inauguration Day
With President Obama’s public inauguration in just under six weeks, and the start of the new Congress in four, what... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 12/11/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Reporters barred from fiscal cliff call: A conference call between Vice President Joe Biden and local government officials this week is to explicitly exclude the media, according to an invitation obtained by Watchdog.org. The call is supposed to be a discussion of the so-called "fiscal cliff" and the Democrats' plans to deal with it. (Watchdog.org)
- Another private fiscal cliff meeting: Senior White House officials are continuing to hold private meetings with CEOs and interest groups regarding the fiscal cliff. The president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, accompanied by one of the group's lobbyists, is having one such meeting this week. (Roll Call)
- The filibuster goes to court: A federal court has started hearing arguments about the Constitutionality of the filibuster. Four House Democrats and the group Common Cause brought the lawsuit. (Washington Post)
Groups Urge Transparency Around Fiscal Cliff Negotiations
The Sunlight Foundation, along with the Institute for Policy Innovation, OpenTheGovernment.org, Public Citizen and U.S. Public Interest Research Groups sent... View Article
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 readingCongressional Party Rules Should Be Online
In the run up to the 113th Congress, Democrats and Republicans are meeting separately in the House and Senate to... View Article
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