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
-
This Week in Transparency – August 14, 2009
Here are some of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and allies over the past week:
Jonathan D. Salant and Lizzie O’Leary with Bloomberg.com have an article showing how there are six lobbyists attempting to influence the health care reform debate for each of the 535 members of the House and Senate. That figure is three times the number of lobbyists registered to lobby on defense. They used data from the Center for Responsive Politics to illustrate how every one of the 10 biggest lobbying firms by revenue is attempting to influence the debate on behalf of some interest or another, spending $263.4 million on lobbying during the first six months of 2009 alone. They quote Bill Allison, Sunlight’s senior fellow, “Whenever you have a big piece of legislation like this, it’s like ringing the dinner bell for K Street.” Multiple other outlets picked up the article and Bill’s quote, including Kate Barrett at ABC News. And David Schechter, CNN’s senior national editor, wrote a column about the lobbying feeding frenzy surrounding the health care reform debate. He lists Sunlight and OpenSecrets.org as good sources for information on the “lobbying largesse.”
In light of the increasingly heated debate over how to reform health care policy, Lisa Stone at BlogHer wrote about the new partnership between BlogHer and OpenCongress, the joint project between the Participatory Politics Foundation and Sunlight, to provide a forum to move the discourse in a more civil and positive direction. They have asked Nancy Watzman, Sunlight’s director of the Party Time project, to share her investigations on their site multiple times a week. Be sure to check their coverage out, which starts today.
Writing at Forbes, Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, wrote about what he calls the promise of innovation provided by Government 2.0. And he asked, “How does government itself become an open platform that allows people inside and outside government to innovate?” O’Reilly points to the Apps for America contests as an example of the “virtuous circle of citizen innovation” using the information made available through the White House’s Data.gov. PC World published a piece by Grant Gross with IDB News Service on how the contest is asking developer to use the raw data released on Data.gov and elsewhere to demonstrate the power of data-publishing and number-crunching services. Gross discussed with Clay Johnson, Sunlight Labs’ director, about how the Labs works to assist traditional and citizen journalists with investigative reporting. “As the Obama administration begins to release more data, there aren’t enough fingers on keyboards here in Sunlight Labs to handle all this,” Clay said. “Has the Obama administration succeeded in making more government data available? You’re talking to the guy with the most unquenchable thirst for that, who will never say that they’re successful.” (Continue reading…)
-
This Week in Transparency – July 31, 2009
Here are some of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and allies over the past week:
National Journal’s Eliza Newlin Carney wrote about how the health care industry is unleashing big money as the health care debate in Congress intensifies. She notes the blog post from Paul Blumenthal, Sunlight’s senior writer, about how five of Sen. Max Baucus‘ (Mont.) former staff members now work for a total of 27 different organizations that either represent the health care or insurance industries, or have a vested interest in the debate. She also quotes Paul, “We thought it was important to show the public that the senators aren’t crafting the policy by themselves. They have all these other connections, through relationships, that have a huge stake in this legislation.” Trudy Lieberman with the Columbia Journalism Review also highlighted and linked to Paul’s post and the graphic he and Kerry Mitchell, Sunlight’s creative director, produced. The “study shows exactly what advocates of real and substantive health reform are up against,” Lieberman wrote, adding that Sunlight provides clarity on just who has the senator’s ear.
Speaking of Kerry’s graphic art skills, The New York Times‘ “First Look” blog includes one of his illustrations in a post highlighting great visualizations created by designers using the Times APIs that “both beautify and clarify information.” Kerry’s graphic illustrates the Times’ usage of the word “transparency” since 1990.
David Talbot at MIT’s Technology Review, in an article how volunteers are using the Web to help make the U.S. government more accountable, highlighted Transparency Corps. Talbot quoted Clay Johnson, director of Sunlight Labs, “Government puts out a ton of data that is really interesting about what it does, but people can’t understand it.” Transparency Corps launch roughly coincided with the launch earlier this month of the White House’s IT Dashboard, the administration’s effort to chart the progress of information-technology projects in various federal agencies. The article quotes Andrew Rasiej, Sunlight’s senior technology advisor and co-founder of Personal Democracy Forum, saying the dashboard may be just the tip of the iceberg heralding a new age of transparency regarding federal spending. “Once people get used to this type of information being so readily accessible, they will demand to see (it) for all other federal spending too, and then the genie will be completely out of the bottle.”
Dan Eggen at The Washington Post wrote how the debate about health-care reform has been a boon to the political fortunes of the 52 members of the Blue Dog Coalition, who have become key brokers in shaping legislation in the House. Eggan used Party Time data to show show U.S. Rep. Mike Ross (Ark.), a leader of the Blue Dogs, has had a steady schedule of fundraising events sponsored by the health industry or lobbying firms that represent health-care companies. Eggen used data from the Center for Responsive Politics that showed Ross had received nearly $1 million in contributions from the health-care sector and insurance industry during his five terms in Congress. On the topic of Party Time, be sure not to miss National Journal’s interview with Party Time’s director Nancy Watzman.
-
This Week in Transparency – July 24, 2009
Here are some of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and allies over the past week:
CQ Weekly’s Maura Reynolds wrote about the Obama administration’s successes and failures in achieving its transparency goals six months into the term. Reynolds quoted Ellen Miller, Sunlight’s director, about how many of their transparency initiatives are still in development and how the kinks are being worked out. “A default position that government data will be accessible to the public in machine-readable format is a huge step forward,” Ellen said. “Is it moving as fast as I’d like? Of course not. But I can be patient while this unfolds.” Ellen also commented on some of the administration’s initiatives, such as “town hall” meetings, that have been tightly controlled. “There is real transparency, and then there is transparency theater,” she said. “I can distinguish between the two.” Reynolds wrote that the more people expect the Internet to deliver the information they want, the more kinds of information they will expect to access that way. “It’s kind of a genie out of the bottle,” Ellen said. “The Internet has raised expectations. I fundamentally believe that the way technology pushes information out to the edges will have a powerful effect on the power structure.” Reynolds reports that open government advocates praise two federal Web sites, USAspending.gov, a site that tracks all federal spending and was set up as a result of a bill co-sponsored by then-Sen. Obama, and Data.gov, the site the new administration designed as a “one-stop shop for number crunchers that consolidates statistics across federal agencies in standard, machine-readable formats.” The article quotes Gary Bass, director of OMB Watch, saying the sites could be vehicles for connecting government performance to spending. “From the point of view of the average user, there has been nothing like this before. That is truly a credit to this administration.” Reynolds notes that it was OMB Watch’s FedSpending.org that served as the technical platform for USAspending.gov.
Despite the existence of rules requiring congressional lawmakers to disclose earmarks they request, rules do not exist requiring them to disclose items classified as “program support.” The Washington Post’s Carol Leonnig illustrates this problem with a report on how $160 million intended to help Mexico’s police buy U.S.-made first-responder radios was tucked into the voluminous congressional plan for U.S. military spending next year. Leonnig quotes Bill Allison, Sunlight’s senior fellow, “It kind of makes a mockery of the disclosure requirements we have. They will disclose the little things, the $1 million projects, but when you have the big-ticket items, you don’t have members willing to take responsibility for those.”
Stephanie Condon, writing at CBS News‘ “Political Hotsheet” column, cited a report from Taxpayers for Common Sense that found that lawmakers serving on the the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense included 1,080 earmarks worth $2.7 billion dollars in the fiscal-year 2010 defense appropriations bill they approved last week. The lawmakers specifically requested more than $1.6 billion in earmarks for their campaign contributors, entities who had donated nearly $1 million to the committee members.
-
Women Who Tech
Tomorrow (Tuesday), the second annual Women Who Tech TeleSummit is being held via phone and the Web. Hundreds of women from across the US and the globe will be participating in the event. The purpose of the summit is to raise the profile of women in the tech world, show case female talent in the field and to build a network of women technology experts. The organizers have pulled together fascinating and exciting lineup of panels featuring renowned women who are breaking new ground in technology.
One of the panels is titled “Transparency and Government 2.0,” where three of my friends and colleagues (Ryan Alexander, director of Taxpayers for Common Sense, Sheila Krumholz, director of the Center for Responsive Politics and Sunlight’s own Denver-based consultant Nancy Watzman) will be discussing Web tools you need to track who is funding lawmakers, how they vote, what earmarks they are sponsoring and more. They will also discuss the moves the Obama administration is taking to open government via technology. This panel is scheduled to kick off at 5:00 pm (Eastern time).
Here’s the link to sign up. You can also follow the telesummit via Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Linkedin.
See you tomorrow at Women Who Tech!
-
A Transparent and Accountable Recovery
In the wake of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and while Congress debates the massive stimulus bill, the Coalition for an Accountable Recovery was created to promote accountability for both federal government agencies doling out the trillions of dollars, for the states and for the companies that benefit from recovery funds. The best way to assure taxpayers that the funds are being used responsibly is to provide “radical” transparency on stimulus spending and to make the details of the stimulus available in online, in real time.
No great surprise to here that the Coalition (of which Sunlight is a member) is calling on Congress to require online reporting that allows the public to easily search, sort, track and download data on the use of recovery. Each state should be required to report on all funds they receive and all data should be presented in a uniform manner, making sure it is compatible with the USASpending.gov Web site. The Coalition has also state that the newest technology should be applied to both the Recovery.gov Web site and USASpending.gov to make the information more accessible for everyone
Sunlight has joined the over 30 groups as part of the coalition, including the Center for Responsive Politics, Common Cause, National Institute for Money in State Politics, OMB Watch, OpenTheGovernment.org, Project on Government Oversight and Taxpayers for Commonsense.
-
TARP Progress on Transparency?
Here’s some potentially encouraging news. On Wednesday, Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General of TARP, disclosed that recently-approved agreements with the automakers and Citibank contain requirements for better disclosure. In a letter he sent Sen. Max Baucus, Chairman of Senate Finance Committee, Barofsky reported that the agreements give his office access to Citigroup’s records and requires that the company report how they are using the bailout funds.
As our friends at Taxpayers for Common Sense wrote, we all hope he gets the remaining 280 banks who also get bailout funds to start disclosing how they are spending the money.
Michael Smallberg at Project on Government Oversight adds that the new agreements also put limits on executive compensation. He calls on Congress to pass a bill that would beef up Barofsky’s oversight ability by giving his office more tools.
Lots of crossed fingers here.
-
Change Congress Conducts a Survey
Our friends at Change Congress have asked their members and supporters to take a survey to help them decide what they should be focused on for the coming year. And a number of questions they asked dealt with government transparency: Are earmarks fundamentally wrong or just need to be more open and transparent to the public? What’s one thing that would create a more open and transparent government? And finally, should lobbyists have a role in government? All good questions.
Japhet Els, Change Congress’ political director, lists some of the responses they have received. Regarding earmarks:, “I believe that if earmarks are going to exist, they ought to be transparent.” Another, “Nothing is 100% wrong or right. Earmarks have their use and full and timely transparency should check abuses.” We agree with these sentiments. That’s why we worked with our friends at Taxpayers for Common Sense to create Earmark Watch, where we’ve placed over 3,000 earmarks online, and ask citizens to research them.
-
LegiStorm’s Earmark Database
LegiStorm, the sister company of the for-profit Storming Media, provides information about the U.S. Congress to the public. In line with their goal to make Congress more transparent, they have just launched an earmark database using 2008 data from Taxpayers for Common Sense. Taxpayers’ data is currently displayed via a massive Excel spreadsheet. LegiStorm has integrated the data with their other data sets, creating this helpful tool to shine light on congressional and executive spending. LegiStorm says they will add the earmark spending data for 2009 after the budget process is complete.
The site allows you to easily learn earmark details such as who the sponsoring members are, which were sponsored by the president, all the earmarks designated to each state, what organizations received the funds, and what bills authorized each earmark. It also lists the number and dollar amounts each state received (Virginia just edged out Texas and California for the top in earmark dollars), the number and amounts designated by each member, a listing of the most expensive earmarks, top receiving organizations, as well as a list of “airdropped earmarks,” an earmark that is not included in the original legislation as approved by either the House or Senate but is later mysteriously inserted into the conference committee reports, which combine both chambers’ versions of the bill.
Sunlight is working with Taxpayers to build a site that will allow users to more easily search their earmark data too. And in the meantime congrats to them for completely making their data available to LegiStorm. And thanks, LegiStorm, for making this data more accessible.
-
Public’s Right to Know v. Stevens
The federal court case against U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska continues in Washington, D.C. Federal prosecutors accuse the long-serving lawmaker of lying on Senate forms to conceal more than $250,000 in renovations on his home in Alaska and other gifts from a former chief of an oil services company. According to our friends at Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), every charge brought against the Senator relates to his failure to disclose gifts and debts on his Senate financial disclosure form. It’s critical to the public’s right to know “where and from whom our public servants receive gifts, loans, and payments,” as TCS writes. “The government, in its opening statement and throughout the trial, has maintained that the public right to know is an important element in this case and that Stevens’ failure to disclose was a breach of this right.”
TCS reports that Stevens’ defense attorneys are arguing that the public’s right to know is not relevant since the prosecution’s charges fall under the False Statements Act, which carries criminal penalties but applies only to statements made to government. They argue that these laws deal only with disclosure to the Senate. The defense say that prosecutors could press the public right to know provision under the Ethics in Government Act, which carries only civil penalty. The judge presiding in the case has yet to rule on the matter.
