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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A New Regime Required For Disclosure
As most of you know I have a long history in the campaign finance field as a founder of two organizations – one which is the nation’s première money and politics data crunching organization and a nonprofit that pioneered the concept of a system of full public financing. So it was with some substantial interest that I reviewed (and yes, I admit with horror) the results of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, which opened the floodgate for corporate and union spending in elections. If the sheer size of corporate bank accounts is any indicator, we will soon see just how much money can buy in the political arena.
Or will we? That is the critical question that must be addressed. Without an immediate update to the disclosure laws — covering everything from who has to disclose, what is required to be disclosed, how often, and in what form — the public will be unable to see this new spending as it occurs, nor how corporations and unions pour money into the many other pockets of a politician’s coat. Without vastly improved disclosure, we won’t be able to understand the new play of forces in Washington. Lobbyists, as well as top officials for corporations and unions, will have a new kind of leverage over politicians. The only deterrent to widespread arm-twisting of public representatives by private interests—short of a constitutional amendment reversing the Court’s ruling, or major changes in how campaigns are financed—may well be the requirement that such arm-twisting be disclosed in a timely manner. Clearly, now more than ever, our entire system of public disclosure of election-related contributions and expenditures needs to be upgraded to keep pace with the influences it is designed to track. And in the 21st century this means that everything must be filed online, in real time.
(Continue reading…)
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State Government Online
There was a terrific op ed in the Maryland section of the Washington Post this weekend by two locally based activists who were writing to demand that the Maryland legislature, and the state Board of Public Works get with the transparency picture.
Reforms should start with the General Assembly’s online legislative tracking system. “Up-to-the-minute” access provides nearly instantaneous information on the bills and proceedings on the House and Senate floors, but it is available only to those in state office buildings and the couple hundred lobbyists willing to pay $800 a year to get these updates faster than once a day…
Posting committee votes online is a necessary step forward, and one that will help ensure voters can hold their legislators accountable for the decisions they make. But why wait until after the fact? To influence the process, citizens need to be able to participate more reliably. They should be able to watch committee proceedings, sign up to testify online and check the order in which bills will be heard at least one day in advance.
Yes indeed. These are great suggestions and honestly — and hopefully — could be made by activists across the country. But there’s no reason to stop with demanding real time, online access to legislative or spending bodies. Why aren’t all government agencies required to make all public information online, and why not make it all available online in real time so the information can be used to inform the process? This should be government’s default when it comes to information. Why is government not routinely using all the new web and mobile based technologies as a means for engaging citizens in a two-way dialog with them, or to provide services for them when they are needed? (You’ve got to love the story of Mayor Cory Booker helping out one of his consitutents in response to a Twitter plea.)
Sunlight is very interested in learning about current best practices in the states along these lines. Tell us what you know in the comments below.
One goal for this year: We’d like to see activists in every state demanding the same kind of openness that Heather Mizuer and Ryan O’Donnell have asked from their government officials.
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Important “Read the Bill” Questions
How do you reward good work? …with more work.
Through the Read the Bill campaign success thus far, it’s clear that there are more questions for us to answer when it comes to getting government information, like major legislation, online for the public – and doing it in as close to real-time as possible. We’ll need your help in getting where we want to be.
The fact that we’re having this conversation at all, and that the conversation is having an impact on Capitol Hill, is a remarkable accomplishment. It’s important to recognize just how hard getting here has been for many folks, and though, it’s equally important for us to address what lies ahead.
The Read the Bill campaign has been a bit like climbing a mountain. It sometimes happens when climbing that you get to the top of what you may have thought was a peak, and subsequently realize that what looked like a “peak” from the depths below, was actually only a ridge top, and there is yet higher to climb.
It’s similar to the way my colleague Clay described Recovery.gov as a success because it has changed the fundamental way government is thinking, despite there being a lot of very important, practical issues yet to grapple with.
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Wisconsin’s Limited Real Time Lobbying Disclosure
Wisconsin like the federal government and every other state has lobbyists who contact lawmakers about legislation. However, Wisconsin has a different way of having those lobbyists report their activities.
When a lobbyists makes first contact regarding a piece of legislation or rule they have 15 days (pdf) to report that contact through a form on the state’s Government Accountability Board’s Web site. This form is then verified and posted online in real time. Just the first contact is reported this way, lobbyists fill out more detailed reports about the rest of their interactions with lawmakers every 6 months.
Even though this is not nearly what we would like to see in terms of real time lobbying reporting it is a great first step. Wisconsin demonstrates that lobbying disclosure of contacts with lawmakers can be processed and posted online in real time. If lobbyists are already conditioned to report first contacts online relatively quickly then how much harder could it be for them to do it more frequently and with all contacts not just the first one. It would be interesting to see if Wisconsin can actually be pushed to shorten the 15 day grace period and have lobbyists report the rest of their interactions more frequently then 6 months.
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Virginia To Post Results In Real Time
The Virginia State Board of Elections has announced that it will have live election results available in real time using XML (Yes the announcement is in a PDF, one step at a time.) You can see the results here.
Great job Virginia for using XML and embracing real time election results.
(h/t Luigi Montanez)
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Tracking Lobbyists’ Real Influence
We’ve got some new data to munch on today that we’re excited about. Essentially, this new data helps show us that when lobbyists from a special interest – in this first case, the health care industry – meet with our representatives, many lobbyists represent much more than just the contributions attributed to them if we were to look them up.
It’s important we know lobbyists’ REAL influence on the people we elect to represent us – and before today, that’s not something we could really do.
The deal is that decision makers (i.e. senators) in the health care debate are not only receiving big bucks from members of the health and insurance industries – but also from the numerous individual lobbyists that represent the industries. All of that money “clustered” or “bundled” together is much more influential than any contribution by itself. So, when one of the lobbyists in a cluster walks into a meeting with a representative, it stands to reason that representative listens to them …how do we say… with a more fully tuned ear.
