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
-
FEC Thwarts Transparency
Yesterday, the Federal Election Commission unanimously approved new disclosure rules regarding bundling, the practice of collecting campaign contributions from friends, co-workers, clients and other associates. (Currently an individual can give up to $2,300 per election to a candidate for president or Congress. But by collecting multiple checks from various sources, bundlers have no limit on what they can raise for a candidate, gaining much favor with the campaign. Lobbyists are masters at the practice.) The FEC was finally creating guidelines for the implementation of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, which Congress passed partly to bring more transparency to bundling.
Unfortunately, the FEC ruling compromises the transparency purpose of the law to ‘provide for the broadest possible disclosure’ of bundling activities. The FEC ruled that campaigns, parties and candidate-affiliated political action committees would now have to disclose the names, addresses, employers and amounts raised by these called “bundlers,” according to CQ. Sounds good, right? But this requirement applies only to registered lobbyists. (Hint: not all influence peddlers are registered.) Plus, the rule applies only when there is a written record of the bundling, or when the candidate gives something to a lobbyist in return like a title or a gift of appreciation, such as an autographed photo. “Knowledge on the part of a candidate that a lobbyist has bundled contributions is not enough under the new FEC rule to trigger reporting requirements, according to the Campaign Legal Center (CLC). “Instead, in the absence of a written record, knowledge plus a tangible benefit to the lobbyist is required to trigger the reporting requirements.”
-
New Lobbying Disclosure Rule Upheld
I don’t want to let this slip by.
The Hill reported on a U.S. District Court decision made on Friday that upheld a key provision of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA). In February, the National Association of Manufacturers had filed suit challenging HLOGA’s disclosure provision requiring any organization actively participating "in the planning, supervision, or control" of lobbying efforts that ponies up more than $5,000 in a quarter to disclose their activities and expenditures. NAM argued that the disclosure clause is imprecise and impacts groups that it is not intended to target, and that it violates the First Amendment. They also said that they were worried that the law would also require it to disclose the names of its members.
In a 57-page opinion, Judge Kollar-Kotelly disagreed, saying the clause was "narrowly tailored to serve compelling government interests, and is neither vague on its face nor is applied to the NAM." You can read the judge’s opinion by following a link provided by the Campaign Legal Center. The court decision clears the way for the new law to force disclosure of such coalitions’ members to the public for the first time on April 21, according to The Hill.
The purpose of this section of the law is to shine a light on stealth lobbying and sham coalitions, pushing legislation such as those that are often promoted by groups like NAM.
