Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

Dark money group takes aim at potential Obama appointee Chuck Hagel

A committee that spent more than $300,000 in dark money to defeat President Barack Obama this year is now spending more to offer advice on whom he should appoint to his cabinet.

Hagel appointment would give some lobbyists a friend in the Pentagon

Feds mull looser regs on armor-piercing bullets as Obama calls for end to gun violence

The federal agency that regulates guns is considering requests for an exemption to the ban on armor-piercing bullets.

Firing, fast tracked bill show clout of copyright holders

If there were any question of the clout big media wields in Washington, the fate of Derek Khanna, the House Republican staffer who called for scaling back the copyright protections these interests benefit from, should leave no doubt. Khanna, whose copyright paper was mistakenly published online by a House Republican policy making body, then quickly withdrawn after protests erupted from major media firms and their congressional allies, was fired earlier this month.

Five House members who got the most NRA money

On one gun regulation, NRA only group to weigh in

In the world of firearm regulatory efforts, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has the loudest megaphone--and sometimes the only one.

Oil companies line up to schmooze with Libyan representatives

The U.S.-Libya Business Association, whose membership includes major oil companies, is meeting today with a top official of that once-ostracized nation. Libya is actively courting foreign investors to its rich oilfields.

Gun lobby active in regulation writing process

In addition to spending heavily on elections and lobbying Congress, the gun lobby is also quite active in the rulemaking process, federal dockets show. The National Rifle Association, other pro-gun groups and their members weighing in frequently on federal regulation covering issues ranging from wildlife to concealed weapons to air travel. Gun control groups and advocates have also participated, although it appears less frequently.

Outside spenders' return on investment

--Updated Dec. 18-- Outside groups spent more than $1.3 billion in independent expenditures to influence the outcome of the election, we now get to see just what all that money bought them -- or didn't. Turns out some of the smart money wasn't so smart after all when it came to making political bets. This year, the pro-business GOP Crossroads fundraising combine and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce weren't as good at picking winners as the labor movement, which appears to be one of the surprise winners of Election Day.

And the ads go on: 2012's big campaign spenders keep up the air wars

Think the campaign season was over? Since Election Day, dozens of TV, web and radio ads have been airing in political battlegrounds, many of them directly naming lawmakers. The Sunlight Foundation has been archiving them on Ad Hawk, a mobile app that allows viewers to help flag political advertising that they are seeing and learn about the funders behind ads .

Pro-gun groups' influence on Connecticut politics

Since 1996, the National Rifle Association has invested about $395,000 to influence elections in Connecticut, the state that is home to the nation's latest mass shooting tragedy. Data downloaded from Sunlight's Influence Explorer show that the nation's premier gun rights lobby has given both to federal and state candidates.

Sens. Ayotte, Menendez continue raising money for their defense funds

Sens. Kelly Ayotte , R-N.H., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

Watch dog groups call for Congress, President to fill ethics posts

Government watchdog organizations went to Capitol Hill yesterday to remind the White House and congressional leadership--currently deadlocked in negotiations over avoiding the flscal cliff--that there's a void in some of the critical institutions that police ethics in Washington.

Egyptian military aid still flying high

The planned delivery of 20 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter planes to Egypt is the perfect symbol of iron triangles at work--special interests and their lobbyists, federal agencies and the lawmakers who fund them. But in the years since President Dwight Eisenhower delivered his warning about the inertia of defense contracts in 1961, the lobbying has only grown more sophisticated. The U.S. government gives Egypt foreign aid, which it uses to buy U.S. military hardware. Lobbyists for the Egyptian government and Lockheed Martin (they both used the same firm) arranged meetings between the buyer and the seller, between representatives of Egypt's military and the Defense Department and key members of Congress who provided Egypt with the U.S. taxpayer dollars--some $213 million--to pay for the planes.