This summer, Code for America, Omidyar Network, and the Sunlight Foundation joined forces to investigate municipal procurement trends, best practices, and potential areas of improvement across the country with a Local Government Procurement Survey.
The survey yielded 31 total responses, representing a total of 28 cities and counties, ranging in population from 13,881 to 2.7 million and hailing from every region of the continental United States. The majority of respondents (93%) were government employees working with or in the purchasing department.
The Local Government Procurement Survey asked cities about procurement process data disclosure, the formal and informal procurement process for IT contracts, and what challenges existed in their current procurement system. Check out more details on our initial results below.
Continue readingThe Library of Congress Really Really Does Not Want To Give You Your Data
It's 2013, and the Library of Congress seems to think releasing public data about Congress is a risk to the public.
The Library of Congress is in charge of [THOMAS.gov](http://thomas.loc.gov/), and its successor [Congress.gov](http://congress.gov). These sites publish some of the most fundamental information about Congress — the history and status of bills. Whether it's immigration law or SOPA, patent reform or Obamacare, the Library of Congress will tell you: *What is Congress working on? Who's working on it? When did that happen?*
Except they won't let you download that information.
FDA Regulations Point to Need for Strengthened Lobbying Disclosure Laws
As my colleague Nancy Watzman reported, the Food and Drug Administration proposed strict new rules to ensure the cleanliness of food production, distribution and warehousing facilities. At the same time, the American Bakers Association announced “a major victory" because somehow they had ensured the new rules would not apply to their warehouses. To find out how and why the ABA secured an exemption to the rules was no straightforward task. A search of the lobbyist disclosure database yielded few results. Instead, it took a Freedom of Information Act request, digging through law firm websites and other sources in order to piece together who the influencers in Washington were and how they managed to ensure their clients were not subject to rules that, on the surface, would appear to be designed to impact their industry.
Continue readingThe life of a food safety exemption
The American Baking Association has successfully lobbied for an exemption from the new food safety law, as Sunlight’s Reporting Group... View Article
Continue readingTrying to track committee hearings? Why docs.house.gov may be your best bet
By Carrie Tian and Matt Rumsey. Research Assistance by Justin Lin.
Every morning in Washington staffers, lobbyists, activists, and ordinary citizens are faced with choices as they try to schedule their days on Capitol Hill. To fill their calendars and get to hearings on time they have to navigate several, often conflicting, sources of information to find the right date, time, and hearing room. As a result they can find themselves checking their laptops before leaving the house and refreshing their phones as they rumble down the Redline.
Docs.House.Gov, among its other features, aims to simplify this problem by becoming a one-stop repository for information on House committee hearings. We decided to look back at the first six months of this program to see how close it was coming to the ideal of including every House committee hearing, as compared to the other sources of “the same” information, notably house.gov/legislative and individual committee websites.
Today in #OpenGov 9/24/2013
National News
- Google was having email issues yesterday, but maybe we can forgive them as they were busy launching a new tool to help emerging democracies design a more perfect union for themselves. The web giant's new site, Constitute, is a collaboration with the Comparative Constitutions Project that draws from the world's constitutions. (The Verge)
- The complicated tale of Doug Band, President Clinton's closest aide who has run into trouble after building a business perched on his access to his boss. (New Republic)
- While many defense firms slowed their PAC giving in August, Lockheed Martin kept up a brisk pace, with nearly $200,000 in donations to federal candidates and committees via its Lockheed Martin Corporation Employees' PAC. (Roll Call)
- Republicans made good use of disappearing campaign finance restrictions to tighten their hold on power in state legislatures across the country over the past couple of years. Now Democrats, getting over some of their distaste for super PACs and the like, are looking to use the unlimited money machines two even the scales a bit. (POLITICO)
- Research suggests that parliamentary monitoring organizations are failing to engage with certain groups, specifically women and those with lower incomes. (Opening Parliament)
- Three years after reporting a bribe on Indian site IPaidABribe.Com a student from Bangalore saw his effort pay off. The student paid a bribe in order to receive a receipt for registering for an identity card and action was recently taken against the official in question. (Tech President)
- A former Republican Candidate for the Boston City Council is launching a super PAC that aims to turn urban voters to the GOP. Robert Fortes, who is also a charter school lobbyist, describes himself as a "proud" black Republican. (Public Integrity)
- The San Diego City Council is floating a draft open data policy that could go into effect as early as January 1, 2014. The policy would create a Chief Data Officer, release data on a rolling basis, and include some notable exemptions. (Voice of San Diego)
Why Kenya’s open data portal is failing – and why it can still succeed
Kenya’s open data portal is floundering. Despite the excitement that surrounded its launch in July 2011, the portal has not been updated in eight months, has seen stagnant traffic, and is quickly losing its status as the symbolic leader of open government in Africa.
For a number of reasons, the portal, which runs on a Socrata platform and can be viewed here, has not lived up to the often sky-high expectations of many onlookers.
First, government ministries have been reluctant to release data. Many observers expected that the launch of the portal would help eradicate the Kenyan government’s harmful culture of secrecy. The Official Secrets Act, a holdover from the colonial era that prevents government employees from sharing official information, has created a closed culture in government and has starved the portal of much needed information.
Second, implementation of the new constitution has hamstrung government officials who are trying to adjust to new roles and identify new responsibilities, significantly reducing government officials’ ability to incorporate open data into their already overburdened workstreams. The new Kenyan constitution, which was overwhelmingly passed in a 2010 referendum, created a new devolved system of government. Large changes are still being implemented, and government officials are struggling to adjust.
This inexhaustive list displays some of the large obstacles standing between the open data portal and the goals of a more transparent, accountable, and effective government. Despite these challenges, there is still hope that Kenya’s open data experiment can regain its footing and reestablish itself as an open government leader.
Political Party Time turns the tables
After a half-decade cataloguing political fundraising invitations (nearly 18,000 and counting!), the Sunlight Foundation decided to throw a bash of our own Tuesday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of our Political Party Time site.
Some of Party Time's most loyal fans -- dozens of journalists and civic activists who use our data to shine light on money and influence in politics -- joined us to toast Party Time and tell favorite war stories.
"I'd like to thank Political Party Time for making sure I can never visit the city of Charlotte, N.C. ever again," quipped Andy Sullivan of Reuters, referring to the site of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. "Thanks to the data you provided, I wrote a story that so angered the host committee of the DNC (Democratic National Committee) that I'm no longer welcome there."
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 9/18/2013
National News
- In non-election years many political committees have the option to file FEC reports twice a year, although they can file monthly if they so choose. Most committees picked the first, resulting in slower disclosure. (Roll Call)
- USAID official Stephanie Grosser sat down with FedScoop TV to talk about the potential for open source technologies to lower the cost of government. (Fedscoop)
- A broad survey of the Federal inspector general community shows that the watchdogs are concerned about the ramifications of the sequester and continued budget cuts, but are hopeful that new technologies and data analytics will help them continue to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. (Government Executive)
- The U.K. took a big step forward on its data policy last week when it began releasing an inventory of previously "unpublished" data. (Tech President)
- This month, government officials in Romania are meeting to discuss how well they have implemented their OGP National Action Plan commitments. The main goal is to assess the first datasets to be publicly released and plan for updates. (European Public Sector Information Platform)
- Lobbyists and contractors sometimes play a big role in local elections by donating to candidates. In New Haven, Connecticut's Mayoral election, the race is coming down to a candidate with strong backing from contractors and lobbyists, and one who hasn't received a single donation from those groups. (Huffington Post)
- New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is looking to go deep for a candidate in his home of Hoboken, NJ. Manning and his wife are hosting a football themed fundraiser for Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer later this month. (POLITICO)
- The Virginia Governors race had the potential to be a close race, but due in part to the money game, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe has settled into a consistent lead. McAullife has significantly out-raised his Republican opponent Ken Cuccinelli. Cuccinelli has recieved significant outside help, but McAuliffe isn't far behind in that category. (POLITICO)
Five years of Political Party Time
We’ve told you before about the innovative ways our elected representatives raise cash: from assault rifle raffles to March Madness fund-a-thons to swanky out-of-town retreats. But taking a step back from all the invites shows some interesting trends. Check the graphic below, and see more dataviz on our 18,000 political fundraising invitations after the jump!
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