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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Reading the Bill: In Action
The health care debate is raging on, and a big part of it includes having versions of the bill available so people can Read the Bill. The great thing about having the bill online for everyone to see is that citizens will start looking for the substantive details of the legislation themselves and add value to the debate.
Citizens of Montana, the home state of Sen. Max Baucus, have been busy reading their senator’s proposed bill. Left in the West has been looking into the bill and comparing what people are saying about what the bill contains.
Frankly, the more I look at this thing, the more it’s obvious we need both a public option and to open the health insurance exchange to everyone. If you want a better analysis of this bill, got to Jay Rockefeller, who says this is what’s wrong with the bill:
- CHIP is put into the exchange.
- No public option.
- Already existing policies from big companies not affected by new regulations. You read that right! Almost half of the nation’s consumers will have no protection from pre-existing condition clauses or lifetime caps!
- Affordability.
See, that’s the thing. If you have crappy, employer-provided insurance, you have to keep it. As Baucus’ bill is written now, you can’t ditch it for something better in the exchange. That’s unacceptable.
Anyway. Still reading this thing.
Also in Utah, The Side Track has taken up the task of answering state Sen. Chris Buttars’ questions about the health care bill by actually reading the bill. See their answers here, here, here, and here.
For those of you who missed it, Sen. Chris Buttars has questions. …
I’ll be honest, I thought we were taking on quite a challenge. 1,000 plus pages really isn’t that large for a piece of legislation (Bush’s final budget was over 1,300 pages long… and speaking of which, did Buttars print that one out on the tax payer’s dime too?), but it is a challenge for several bloggers with many other obligations. We assumed.
We assumed wrong. In fact, it’s been embarrassingly easy, and a bit of a bore, as research challenges go.
No matter where you stand, the debate is always better when you take actual details from the bill, instead of hearsay. This is why every bill should be available for 72 hours. Call your congressman today and ask them to sign the discharge petition for H. Res 554.
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Local Sunlight 6/1/09
Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series to highlight local blogs that do a great job of covering local, state, and congressional political news. This week I have highlights from Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, and Nevada.
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Local Sunlight
Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series to highlight local blogs that do a great job of covering local, state, and Congressional political news. This week I have highlights from Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Texas.
In Montana, MTPolitics.net highlights the new Montana Election wiki. The wiki aims to be an all stop shop for all of Montana’s elections happenings. It includes elections from the county to the federal level.
In Nevada, Blue Sage Views talks about how much money in earmarks Rep. Dean Heller has gotten in the last two years. There is definitely some work in EarmarkWatch.org for Rep. Dean Heller according to his $32 million earmarks.
In Oregon, Loaded Orygun blogs about his experience trying to cover an Executive Session of the Lake Oswego Council. Executive Sessions are closed except to journalists. There are no clear rules about whether citizen journalists are allowed to be credited and so TorridJoe was asked to leave. This incident is requiring Lake Oswego to adopt a policy regarding new media journalists. Stayed tuned to Loaded Orygun for more info. They should check out the Open House Project’s section on Citizen Journalism Access.
In Texas, blogHouston points to Texas Watchdog posting of Houston City Council’s financial disclosures on their website. Since this information is not available online now this watch dog group is doing it for them. How nice.
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Montana Leads in Openness and So can Yours (if you ask)
Since its launch, on Tuesday, the Punch Clock Map has gotten some excellent support. The one of note is this editorial in Montana’s Helena Independent Record:
Delegation leads in openness
By IR staff – 12/13/07Naively, no doubt, we were hoping that the Montana congressional delegation’s practice of posting their daily schedules on the Internet might catch on in Washington.After all, it’s an easy way for members of Congress to show their commitment to transparency in government and maybe even help repair that institution’s tattered image.
No such luck. A national watchdog organization called the Sunlight Foundation recently applauded U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Sen. Max Baucus and U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg for being among only eight of the 535 members of Congress to post their schedules.
A foundation spokeswoman said congressional members often say they don’t want to reveal their schedules for reasons of security. That’s a particularly lame excuse. All they need to do is post their scheduled a day late, as the Montana delegation does. Yesterday’s schedule isn’t of much help to any bad guys lurking out there. The real reason so few are willing to make their schedules public is that they probably fear political operatives will be poring over their itineraries, searching for any ammo they can find for future attacks.But the main reason for elected officials to reveal their schedules is to be open with the people whom they represent. By showing the world how they are spending their days, politicians are proclaiming that they have no private agenda, are attending to the people’s business, and have nothing to hide.
In a Congress rife with influence peddling and worse, that’s of no small value. The openness of Tester, Baucus and Rehberg may not be the height of fashion inside the Washington D.C. beltway, but that’s all the more reason for folks back in Montana to be proud of them.
Montana should be proud of its delegation. These lawmakers decided to be ahead of the curve and brave the insecurity of being more transparent than anyone else. They have congressional guts. How do your representatives match up? Are they willing to be this transparent? You should call and ask them to post their schedules online.
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Sen. Max Baucus Punches the Clock!
Today we were alerted to the very impressive schedule from Montana Senator Max Baucus. Now for the first time Montana citizens know who all of their members of Congress are meeting with. I have to say Sen. Baucus has done the right thing by his constituents.This could not have happened without the dedication of the Montana blogging community; especially Don Pogreba from Intelligent Discontent and Jay Stevens and Matt Singer from Left in the West. Montana bloggers understand that openness and transparency are worth fighting for as practices that are important for elected officials to embrace.
Montana is currently the only state whose entire congressional delegation posts a daily schedule. Constituents can now track the meetings of both Senators and their representative to make sure that they are working hard for Montana.
Congratulations, this is a great day for Montana – and for transparency.
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“How About it Max?”
With the advent of Rep. Rehberg (MT) posting his schedule to his official congressional Web site, Montana bloggers and newspapers have asked if Sen. Baucus would join his fellow lawmakers and post his schedule, as well. Lawmakers who agree to share their schedule show that they’re responsive, open, transparent and above all accountable to their constituents. When citizens can find out who has the ears of their lawmakers they can fairly determine if those lawmakers are making fair decisions. The information is vital to a strong democracy because it allows, for the first time, a voter to engage in the daily life of their elected official. The Montana Standard agrees — on Sunday they printed an editorial making the point that
With just three people representing the fourth largest state in the country, our congressional delegation already faces a great challenge in trying to stay in touch with Montanans, and this one relatively easy way to keep people in the loop.
Given the distance between Washington DC and Montana it could be frustrating to a Montanan to feel connected to their representative. But, with a schedule, people know that members of Congress are, in fact, meeting with people in the district and keeping those needs in mind daily. Bloggers are also asking, Don Pogreba’s blog Intelligent Discontent
It's time for Senator Max Baucus to do the right thing. Following the lead of Senator Tester and Representative Rehberg, it's time for Max to start telling Montana voters how he spends his days in Washington.
and Jay Steven’s Left in the West "So you know what this means! Max Baucus is the only Montana federal-level representative hiding his business behind a cloud."
The value of a daily available schedule is not lost and constituents actually see the value and want to see all their Representatives do the right thing. We have seen the power that Montana Bloggers have in demanding accountability from their elected officials, and I am confident that Sen. Baucus will do the right thing by his constituents. There’s hope he’s already considering it. Today, the Billings Gazette published an editorial citing, Sen. Baucus’ spokesperson, Barrett Kaiser stating “…said last week that the senator is considering posting his schedule.”
The Billings Gazette continues saying:
“Max Baucus ought to join this bold minority movement in telling his employers (that's all of us Montanans) what he's doing in the job we're paying him to do. With Baucus disclosing his daily meetings, Montana would have the distinction of having the first entire delegation sharing this information publicly.”
Having an entire delegation posting schedules is not only significant it’s pioneering. Montana would have the advantage of being the only state where people can actually compare and contrast who all their representatives are meeting with. And while this doesn’t solve all problems it goes a long way to bring citizens into the process of lawmaking. By making sure that officials are soliciting a wide range of viewpoints, meeting with the humble as well as the high powered, a public schedule will demonstrate that, indeed, the member is doing the work constituents sent him to Washington to do.
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Rep. Dennis Rehberg Punches In!
Rep. Dennis Rehberg is the 7th Member of Congress (and the second from Montana) to put a daily schedule online. Montana freshman, Sen. Jon Tester, made a campaign promise to post his schedule and he has been posting it since the beginning of his term. The existence of Tester’s schedule prompted the Helena Independent Record to ask Rep. Rehberg and Sen. Baucus if they were thinking of posting one also. Rehberg’s spokesman said his schedule was available to anyone who called his office and asked but when bloggers decided to take him up on that offer they found out that his schedule was available only if you were in Washington (more responses here). Later, an article in the Missoula Independent quoted Rep. Rehberg’s chief of staff saying that when the website was redesigned Mr. Rehberg’s schedule will be posted daily.
Now that the redesign is done there is a lovely schedule very conveniently located on the front page for all constituents to see here.
Wow. This is the power of citizens at work. It wouldn't have happened unless the citizens of Montana demanded it. Montana bloggers, both left and right, engaged each other and Rehberg’s office in a debate over the merits of posting a schedule. The debate started and ended with them.This shows that citizens and bloggers CAN make their congressman more transparent and responsive.
By fulfilling a promise of transparency, Rep. Rehberg has shown his commitment to a more engaging relationship with his constituents. Along with Sen. Tester, this effort makes Montana the second state with two members of Congress punching the clock. (Florida’s Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Kathy Castor also post their schedules.)
Montana could become the first state with their entire congressional delegation punching the clock if Sen. Baucus were to post his schedule. So Senator, where do you stand?
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GOP Alleges Montana Democrats Broke Finance Rules:
The state Republican Party has filed a complaint with the FEC charging that the Montana Democratic Party did not fully disclose their finances to the Federal Election Commission. According to the Associated Press, the state GOP is arguing that, “Democrats should have been filing monthly reports for being engaged in campaigning against Sen. Conrad Burns, a federal candidate under FEC rules.” The Democratic Party claims that it filed a six-month disclosure and does not need to file monthly, but did not elaborate.
