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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Sunshine Week Editorials on S. 482
Happy Sunshine Week everyone! I’m happy to share some editorials from around the country in support of Sunlight’s efforts to get the Senate to electronically file their campaign finance reports by passing S. 482.
The Knoxville News Sentinel writes in support of S. 482 stating, “although a former senator from Tennessee really didn’t invent the Internet, we urge members of the U.S. Senate to make better use of it anyway.”
The Salt Lake City Tribune pens an article about the Pass 482 campaign including a look at Sen. Orrin Hatch’s position. “Hatch, too, says there is merit to the bill and that it enjoys widespread support.” Sen. Hatch says he supports the bill but is yet to sign on as a co-sponsor. You can call his office here to ask him to sign on.
The Birmingham News and The Patriot Ledger both published op-eds by Sunlight’s Ellen Miller calling for the Senate to pass S. 482.
The effort to Pass 482 is only just underway. You can still help out by calling your senators and asking them to support the bill at our Pass 482 site.
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Tweet Success! Boxer and McCaskill to Support 482
Yesterday, we announced a campaign to pass S. 482, the Senate electronic filing bill. There are two tacks to this campaign: one involves calling your senators and seeking support for the bill and opposition to a potential poison pill amendment, the other involves “tweeting” to the 17 senators on Twitter to try and secure their support for the bill or thank them for cosponsoring. After one day, we have already received positive responses from both Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Claire McCaskill. Both stated their support for the bill over Twitter:
clairecmc: I’ve supported electronic filing of campaign reports for a long time. It’s embarrassing that we are not required to file electronically.#482
Barbara_Boxer: Thanks to all who tweeted me about e-filing of campaign finance reports. I was a cosponsor of S. 482 before and will do so again.
In less than 24 hours,
2 out of 15 of the senators on Twitter who had not cosponsored are now cosponsors. (UPDATE: Sen. McCaskill has not yet officially cosponsored the bill and simply stated her support, Sen. Boxer officially cosponsored the bill yesterday. We hope that McCaskill turns her support into being an actual cosponsor soon.) In terms of grassroots outreach that is an amazing turn around. (See also, Clay’s post at Sunlight Labs.) In both the Boxer and McCaskill responses we can see that Twitter is a great way to communicate with constituents. Thanks to everyone who helped “tweet” these senators.We still your help in making telephone calls to Senate offices. So far, 67 calls have been made. We need to keep the pressure on to make sure that this bill finally passes. Go to the Pass 482 site and follow the instructions to call your senators. It’s very easy.
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Save Trees–Pass S. 482
We’ve written about why the Senate should pass S. 482, requiring electronic disclosure of campaign finance records, because the public deserves timely, online access to important information about who is funding election campaigns. We’ve talked about how the backward process wherein senators deliver paper copies of their reports to the U.S. Federal Election Commission that the agency reconverts into electronic databases wastes some $250,000 a year.
Now let’s talk about trees. Dead trees.
Last year alone, the senators sent 340,000 sheets of paper to the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC). (That’s 290,000 pages from Senate campaign committees and about 50,000 from the two party senatorial committees, the Democratic Senatorical Campaign Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to FEC official Bob Biersack.)
With some help from Susan Kinsella, executive director at Conservatree, we learned that 340,000 pages translates to 1.7 tons of paper. Then, using handy dandy paper calculator (www.edf.org/papercalculator/)from the Environmental Defense Fund, we calculated that translates to some six tons of trees.
In the process of harvesting those trees, paper manufacturers will emit as much sulfur dioxide as eight 18-wheeler trucks and emit as much asthma-causing particulates as two buses.
Sen. Patrick Roberts, who is threatening to sabotage S. 482 by attaching an unnecessary and controversial amendment that would actually decrease transparency and accountability in the Senate, sent some 5,677 pages to the FEC over his last six-year fundraising cycle. That’s enough paper to stretch nearly a mile, if you laid it end to end.
Passing S. 482 won’t save our planet or balance the budget. The most compelling reason to pass it is because it would increase transparency. That said, senators might as well cut a little waste and some some money while they join the internet age. Call your senators and urge them to support electronic filing of campaign finance reports.
source: Environmental Defense Fund, www.edf.org/papercalculator/.
