Making Government Transparent and Accountable
The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Underlying all of our efforts is a fundamental belief that increased transparency will improve the public's confidence in government
The Sunlight Foundation Blog
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Where’s CONAN? 6 months later, still no sign of legal treatise
On the 220th birthday of the Constitution, Sunlight made a simple request: the fantastic legal treatise known as the Constitution Annotated should be published online in XML. The Constitution Annotated — CONAN, to those who know it well — explains the U.S. Constitution section-by-section in light of Supreme Court decisions. Federal law requires that the Library of Congress write this document, a task that has fallen on the Congressional Research Service; the Government Printing Office is required by law to publish it.
The other Conan.
Today, 6 months after our letter to CRS and GPO, which asks them to publish the XML file online, and regularly update it online (just like on Congress’ internal website, which is up-to-date), the public still does not have access to CONAN in XML. The American people deserve access to an authoritative explanation of the Constitution, especially when it is prepared by public servants and is required by law to be publicly available.
Senator Feingold, the Chairman of the Constitution subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, agrees with us. He wrote a letter to GPO and CRS in November asking for “the Constitution Annotated to the published online in XML format … with updates be made available to the general public at the same time they are made available to Congress.”
And yet here we are, six months later, on the Constitution’s half birthday. Has anything changed? As always, GPO continues to publish limited updates to CONAN every other year, in plain text file and PDF formats, and updates the full treatise once a decade. That’s not enough.
CONAN is updated as the Supreme Court issues decisions — and yet, we’re still stuck in 2008. A lot has changed since then, including a new Supreme Court justice and several landmark decisions. CRS generates the file in XML, but that detailed meta-data is stripped out. GPO recently (and admirably) started publishing the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations in XML. (This video explains why XML is useful.) So why not this?
In July 2009, the Public Printer, the head of GPO, gave a speech recognizing the importance of the federal government “provid[ing] complete legal and regulatory information online in an electronic format that is fully visible by the American people free of charge. We should start with the Constitution Annotated.” So how do things stand now?
When we asked CRS for a comment on the status of CONAN last week, their spokesperson, Janine D’Addario, had a three-word comment: “discussions are continuing.” This adds to their comment from last September: “The Congressional Research Service and the Government Printing Office plan to discuss publication of the Constitution Annotated and possible future enhancements.”
GPO was more forthcoming. Their spokesperson, Gary Somerset, said, “GPO serves the needs of our customers and is committed to providing the American public access to federal government information in an electronic format this is usable and free of charge. In all facets of GPO’s information dissemination, the agency acts as the ‘printer’ under the direction of the publishing agency. In the case of CONAN, that is the U.S. Senate. GPO is currently awaiting direction from the Senate on this issue.”
Over the last several years, Congress and the President have made government transparency a priority. They have urged agencies to conceive of their missions in ways that maximize transparency. Allowing for the re-use of government-held information — which is owned by the public — is fundamental to transparency. It should not take an Act of Congress (specifically, of the Senate) demanding that CRS and GPO fully open CONAN to the American people to get these agencies to do what is already within their power.
We have heard some rumblings of progress, like thunder in the distance. We hope this rumbling will grow into a roar. Publishing CONAN online, in XML, as it is updated, would be an easy win for CRS, GPO, and the American people.
* As usual, I have to disclose that I served as a legislative attorney with CRS. More information about the Constitution Annotated is available here.
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Video: Press Conference Announcing the Public Online Information Act
Representative Steve Israel, Sunlight Executive Director Ellen Miller, and Personal Democracy Forum co-founder Andrew Rasiej announce the introduction of the Public Online Information Act, or POIA, in the House of Representatives. More information is available at ThePOIA.org. Watch the video below.
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Who Am I? What Am I Doing Here? (Everything I Learned Came From Romero Movies)
In honor of Sunlight Week I’ve posted an explanation on what I do and why I do it below. A little personal transparency from the Sunlight Foundation:
I’ve always loved zombie movies, although I’m almost exclusively particular to those made by George Romero. The slow-moving zombie representing the real imminence of death in all of our lives is a resonating image, whether you get the metaphor or not. One morning in 1999, I was awoken by a scene out of a Romero movie. The front and backyards of my parent’s Takoma, D.C. house were filled with members of the press moaning and creeping ever closer to the doors. For months, I had been greeted every morning and followed home every afternoon by these ravenous creatures who sought to devour the brains of every man, woman and child in America. They would appear on the television in the form of talking heads or politicians as I ate dinner and would call, incessantly, at all hours of the day (“Braaaaiiins,” they would mumble). Zombieland isn’t a movie, it’s the culture spawned by the political elites and the media that covers them. Looking back at that moment, while we waited for the police to arrive to clear the undead from our lawn, I can’t help but think that that brain-dead media swarm was ripe for a Romero metaphor–which I’m sure you can figure out on your own. I couldn’t exactly pick up a sawed-off shotgun to kill these rotting corpses, but there turned out to be other ways of helping out.
Wanting to reorient Washington away from it’s zombified state–and the desperate need for a job–led me to the Sunlight Foundation. In 2006, I was brought onto this crazy ride by Sunlight’s Executive Director Ellen Miller. Over the last four years I’ve cut out a role doing two important things to try and keep the zombies off of our lawns in the days ahead: (1) advocate for more information and data be released to the public and (2) use that information and data to report on and “data-jam” politicians and the media. I’ll try to explain both of these things and why they matter below (be forewarned, inexplicable references to the 18th century may occur).
Let’s start with number (1): Advocating for transparency
The truth of the matter is that the proper way to dispose of the carrion in Washington isn’t to necessarily send new bodies in, but to expand the voice of those coming from without. And this isn’t solely about amplification. Higher decibel levels seem to feed the zombie virus. What is important is creating better informed voices, not louder ones. Doing that requires connecting people who want information about their government to the information they seek. The best way to change Washington is to open it up to the people. This doesn’t mean a direct democracy, but an informed democratic polity where people have the same access to information as their representatives. What I’m talking about, and why I work here, is to promote and create egalitarian access to information. (Continue reading…)
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Transparency Around the World
It’s Sunshine Week again, and in that spirit I want to share a recent story about open government. Two weeks ago, the chief of staff for a member of the Republic of Korea Assembly looked over at me and, through a translator, said he was going to tell me why their political system is better than America’s.
It was an interesting moment for me. At the meeting were three additional National Assembly staffers, and I listened attentively as the translator related the gist of the argument:
- Corporations in South Korea are prohibited from spending money on political activity.
- Individuals can spend up to $5,000 per year on Assembly races, and they can only give to four candidates per year.
- Any spending above $3,000 must be disclosed.
How did I find myself in this situation? For starters, it wasn’t the first time! One of the many pleasant aspects about working at the Sunlight Foundation is the simple act of talking about open government with other interested parties. In this case, it was a delegation of staffers from Korea. The trip was arranged by World Learning, as part of the International Visitor Leadership Program administered by the U.S. State Department. Yesterday’s was the fifth such meeting I’ve participated in since I started at Sunlight—previously, my colleagues and I discussed transparency with a delegation of Dutch officials, an activist/videographer from Australia, a political science professor from Colombia, and officials from Latin America.
I was a little playful in that last paragraph, but the meetings are more than just “pleasant.” (Continue reading…)
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Making Public Information Available Online: Rep. Israel Introduces the Public Online Information Act
Today, Representative Steve Israel introduced the Public Online Information Act, which if enacted would free a vast treasure trove of government information. All too often, information that the law requires be publicly available is hidden behind stone walls and paper barriers. POIA tears down these walls by:
- Requiring Executive Branch agencies to publish publicly available information on the Internet in a timely fashion and in user-friendly formats.
- Creating a multi-branch advisory committee to develop government-wide Internet publication guidelines.
This 24-page legislation has many details, which are nicely summarized in a 1-page description of the bill, a plain language version of the legislation, and in this video. In essence, POIA requires the Executive Branch to follow commonsense rules in making public information available online, and encourages all three branches to work together with the public to develop online disclosure best practices.
My colleague Bill Allison blogs about some of the information that POIA will make available online and why doing so is important, and Clay Johnson, the head of Sunlight Labs, breaks down why POIA is important to the technology community.
POIA is the result of a lot of effort from many people. Representative Israel’s staff have been working on this legislation for months, with assistance from Sunlight and others. Those efforts have paid off, as a coalition of more than 25 organizations today is calling for Congress to hold hearings on POIA.
We at Sunlight have long believed that for information to be truly publicly available, it should also be online — our reform agenda lists as one of its principles “public means online.” The idea for this legislation comes directly from a panel discussion at the Personal Democracy Forum conference in 2009 where Andrew Rasiej (co-founded of PDF and a senior technology advisor to Sunlight) asked Rep. Israel about turning this idea into legislation.
Full resources on the Public Online Information Act are available at ThePOIA.org. Also, follow the conversation on Twitter at #thePOIA – you can use the short link http://bit.ly/thePOIA as well.
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Transparency Is Trending
This week is Sunshine Week, a lot of people are very excited and are taking the time to write about why open government is important to them. Here are just a few of the great posts people are writing, explaining why transparency is important.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote an editorial about the need for government transparency:
“…some federal agencies require citizens to travel to Washington or to regional offices to examine files. Sometimes, these files are available for review only on old, slow computers and only during standard business hours. Such hoops diminish the usefulness of the information to the very citizens in whose name — and on whose dime — it was collected.
In the news business, we know all too well that this frequently is not the case. It is why this newspaper has repeatedly pushed government officials to open their meetings and, even in an era of tight budgets, has not flinched from going to court when our requests are denied. When we do so, we act not just for ourselves, but for every other news organization or individual with a right to know.
The fundamental importance of that right is why our industry, along with allies such as the Sunlight Foundation, observes Sunshine Week beginning today. Our nation’s founders understood the importance of openness. Having experienced a very different reality as colonists, they knew that closed doors invite suspicion and tyranny. And so they enshrined principles such as freedom of the press and public court proceedings in the Bill of Rights.A government based on the consent of the governed must open its doors to them — to you. It was true in 1789. It still is today.”
The Asheville Citizen-Times has an article addressing how transparency alters a political debate:
“When people get bad information, they will make bad decisions. When they get real information, it’s a whole new ballgame.
And when election time rolls around, they might start throwing a few beanballs themselves.
All I can add to that is …
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack.”The Kansas Watchdog has an article about Sunshine Week:
“Open government isn’t the work of any one organization or of government alone. The Sunlight Foundation illustrates the point with the Transparency Cycle which illustrates the process of creating a government ‘more deserving of our trust, and ultimately, a government that allows its citizens to fully participate and hold government accountable as our Founders intended.’”
NM Politics. Net has a post about “Giving thanks for an open, accountable government”:
“Even better, we’re doing something about it. ‘Transparency’ is the new buzzword across public agencies and in nonprofit and business sectors. Political candidates jockey to be the most open, pro-sunshine contender. And in the Roundhouse and in city and county chambers throughout New Mexico, policymakers are embracing modern mechanisms for getting information to the people.”
The Kansas Wichita Eagle has a great post on why Sunshine Week Matters:
“It’s about making sure the public has access to information that affects lives and communities.”
The Depot Dazed wrote about how people can make open government a reality:
“ ‘Sunshine’ may make it possible, but it is only YOU, the people who can make open government a reality.”
This week Sunlight will be keeping track of posts like this from all over the Web. You don’t need a newspaper to take part in the conversation about how to make government more open and transparent.
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C-SPAN Posts Full Archives
Serious geek-out moment. C-SPAN has posted their full archives online in embeddable format. I could waste a few days watching this. Since this is crazy health care reform week, I’ve decided to post the following video I found in the archive. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testifying before the Senate Finance Committee in 1993 discussing President Bill Clinton’s health care reform plan (the video may take a minute to load): (Continue reading…)
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Read the Bill Becoming the Norm
Check out this line from Jay Newton-Small’s Swampland blog post on the way forward for health care reform in the House:
Once they have a bill, Dems need to post it online for at least 72 hours for members to review before a vote.
The fact that reporters covering Congress are stating that the Majority “needs” to post the bill online for 72 hours shows how far the Read the Bill effort has gone. As this policy has become the norm it is increasingly clear how important legislative information is to both individual members of Congress and ordinary people.Congress should still pass a rules change to require the 72 hours reading time to make the policy enforceable. Still, you’ve shown Congress that people out there want to be able to read legislation and be assured that their representatives have enough time to read and study the bills.
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Earmark Transparency Makes More Sense Than a Ban
The recent policies imposed by the House Appropriations Committee and the House Republican Caucus to ban for-profit earmarks and all earmarks respectively will reduce the ability of the public to track directed spending and do little to stem this type of spending. Perhaps this is counter-intuitive to some people, but, as the late, great Bill Hicks would say, “I know this is not a very popular idea. You don’t hear it too often any more … but it’s the truth.“
First of all, the obvious, the for-profit earmark ban and the House Republican earmark ban both only apply to the House of Representatives. The Senate refuses to follow suit. With the Senate earmarking precious appropriations dollars, House members will take to lobbying their state’s senators for earmarks in their respective districts. The money isn’t drying up, so why not try to get some.
Second, tons of not-for-profit earmarks go to colleges, universities, non-profits and state and local governments that then contract out to for-profit firms. Here are some examples: (Continue reading…)
