Sunlight Foundation video: Washington's Lobbyist Fix -- The Advisory Committee on Transparency. March 16, 2011. I'm posting this year-old video because Dan Eggen is a panelist on a forum on the topic of transparency.
The only thing better this week than hot pizza and cold beer while watching the beginning of the NCAA basketball tourney on TV -unexpectedly being served-up some sweet hypocrisy on a silver platter!
More, please!
The Washington Post
The Influence Industry blog
Pro-disclosure groups often don’t disclose themselves
By Dan Eggen,
Published: March 14, 2012
In a bid to limit the impact of “secret money” in the 2012 elections, a coalition of liberal-leaning groups announced a campaign this week aimed at pressuring corporations to reveal donations to political groups.
There is one complication, however: Many of the groups behind the effort also don’t disclose their donors to the public.
CNN video: Reporter Lisa Sylvester examines the identity and interests of some of the largest campaign contributors to the 12 members of the new Super Committee debt panel, and discusses their agendas with The Sunlight Foundation's Bill Allison. August 16, 2011.
The informative videos above about the Super Committee Debt group were in my YouTube Channel inbox today, and yesterday afternoon I received this latest email from Nicole Aro of The Sunlight Foundation, and I reprint it here for your edification:
Dear Sunlighter,
Congressional leaders have appointed members to the “Super Committee” -- 12 lawmakers assigned the power and responsibility of cutting $1.5 trillion from the national deficit -- by the end of the year. As you might expect, lobbyists and powerful special interests have already started to circle.
This “Super Congress” or “Super Committee” certainly has “Super Powers” -- but if they don’t pledge to be Super Transparent, we won’t know if they’re working for us or for the powerful, wealthy lobbyists and special interests in Washington. This work could stay in the shadows until the recommendations of the committee are released in December!
The creation of this committee -- totally outside normal congressional rules and accountability -- is a pretty clear signal that something is broken in our democracy.While the committee members are certainly entitled to some private deliberation, this process needs be open and transparent. Sunlight's come up with five demands to increase transparency in this committee, but we need your help to make sure others join our campaign.
The communication center at Hallandale Beach Blog received this very positive bit of news about government transparency and accountability this afternoon via an email from Jake Brewer and our hard-working friends in D.C. at the at The Sunlight Foundation about some far-reaching efforts by Sen. John Tester of Montana and Rep. Steve Israel of New York (Long Island).
I forwarded it to like-minded friends from coast-to-coast and am happy to share the news with you all today. ----------------- From: Jake Brewer Date: Mon, May 10, 2010 at 12:21 PMSubject: An easy fix
We're really moving.
Seriously.
We spend a lot of time talking about what government should do to become more open and transparent, and in this past week there's real movement in Congress on one of the things that we need to happen.
It's an easy fix to our current system which would simply make government work better.
Specifically, Senator Jon Tester has introduced the Senate version of the Public Online Information Act, which would revolutionize how the public can gain access to government information. And though we're going to have to build much more clout to actually pass the bill in the House and Senate, the introduction of this bill is a big step.
Keep the momentum strong by signing the Public=Online pledge and sharing it.
Numbers are one of the things that Congress listens to most, and we need to be as loud as possible. Thus, our goal is to get 25,000 pledge signatures in the next 6 weeks.
At the end of June, we'll take the Public=Online pledge to Capitol Hill and present it to the co-sponsors of the bill. This will show them that we not only support the Public Online Information Act, but that there are citizens everywhere demanding Congressional action on it.
They're waiting to hear from us, but we need to let them know what we want. By signing the Public=Online pledge, we're doing that.
We're just about to reach 4,000 signers. When we get to 5,000 we'll start making phone calls as well.
Much more to come in the months ahead. Thanks for all your support!
The Sunlight Team
PS If you want to see a short explanation of why the Public Online Information Act matters, check out this short video and other helpful resources from Sunlight's policy team which explain what the legislation does http://thePOIA.org
------
See also: Tester behind measure for open records
By Ledyard King, Tribune Washington Bureau, May 7, 2010
Washington Times Editorial: Obama fails the transparency test http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/07/obama-fails-the-transparency-test/
On the campaign trail, Barack Obama made the bold promise that his administration would be more transparent than his predecessor's. More than a year into his presidency, however, not much has changed. The list of complaints about openness is topped by the well-known failure to negotiate Obamacare in public. The president's new deficit-reduction commission has followed the same lead and is conducting most of its deliberations behind closed doors.
Written documents also are closely guarded. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. refuses to release information about which of the Justice Department's attorneys did private legal work for Guantanamo Bay detainees and which have (or have not) been recused from such issues because of conflicts of interest. The administration also is holding back the names of released Guantanamo detainees who have returned to terrorist activities. Rep. Frank Wolf, Virginia Republican, meanwhile, is among those complaining that the department still has not adequately answered his questions about why it dropped or reduced serious voter-intimidation charges against affiliates of the New Black Panther Party. Freedom of Information requests from The Washington Times on the same topic also have been shunted aside.
Sen. Jon Tester, Montana Democrat, and Rep. Steve Israel, New York Democrat, want to force the executive branch to open up. On Thursday, they introduced the Public Online Information Act (POIA), which would require government-held public information to be posted online. Classified information and private deliberations still would be protected, but the bill would give citizens access to documents without the red tape imposed by the current process.
The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation applauded the bill because it would make a number of important reports available online for the first time. These include lobbying disclosure reports filed by government contractors and grantees, the already-required financial disclosures of high-ranking political appointees and disclosures of third-party payments for the travel of executive-branch officials.
The more Americans know about the workings of their government, the better equipped they will be to make the right choices on Election Day. Until President Obama takes his promises seriously and opens up his administration, placing existing printed material online is a step in the right direction.
