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Sunlight Live covers deficit reduction
By Joshua Hatch Apr 13, 2011 11 a.m.This morning the Sunlight Foundation will use its award-winning live platform, Sunlight Live (sunlightlive.com) to cover the Senate Finance Committee's hearing on deficit reduction. We'll follow that hearing with live coverage of President Obama's speech on that same topic.
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Consumer database survives budget deal
By Nancy Watzman Apr 12, 2011 2:07 p.m.The controversial online consumer complaint database launched by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in March escaped the budget axe for now, according to House legislative language released today.
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Poised to make decision on regulating foreign swaps, Geithner meets with banks wanting exemption
By Nancy Watzman Apr 7, 2011 10:02 a.m.In February, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met with the CEO and two top-level executives from the London-based bank HSBC to discuss the issue of foreign exchange swaps.
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In response to Renco lobbying, activists mount their own campaign
By Keenan Steiner Apr 6, 2011 11:28 a.m.A coalition of environmental advocates has launched a letter writing campaign directed at government officials who intervened in a dispute between Renco Group and its Doe Run Peru subsidiary and the government of Peru. The campaign came after the Sunlight Foundation reported that Renco had hired eight former government officials in less than three months to lobby on its behalf.
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Lobbying Tracker now follows foreign influence
By Lindsay Young Apr 6, 2011 10:27 a.m.Sunlight's Lobbying Tracker, which shows the latest hirings of K-Street professionals by special interests and when former congressional members and staff can legally lobby their old colleagues, now lets users track foreign influence as well. The Lobbying Tracker pulls in the latest filings made under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, allowing users to follow the latest foreign clients, see the most recent semi-annual disclosure reports and even see who the most recent individuals are to disclose their activities under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.
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Despite moratorium, Lungren staff met with firm seeking earmark
By Lindsay Young Mar 30, 2011 10:02 a.m.Six months after Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., joined a House Republican voluntary moratorium on requesting earmarks, his staff met with executives from a cyber security company that requested an earmark to explain their appropriations process, according to internal company emails from the firm released by a group of hackers known as Anonymous.
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Lobbyists move into unlimited money territory
By Ryan Sibley Mar 29, 2011 10:44 a.m.Jeffery Scott Bensing, a registered lobbyist and former Chief of Staff to Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., filed paperwork in January with the Federal Election Commission to create the Freedom Path Action Network, a new independent expenditure only committee.These committees--also known as Super PACs because they can raise unlimited funds from any source and spend it to support or oppose federal candidates--played critical roles in some races in the 2010 mid-term elections.
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Coinciding with state labor woes, surge in federal lobbyist registrations
By Lindsay Young Mar 28, 2011 3:49 p.m.As the labor battle in Wisconsin and several other mid-western states heated up in January, there was an increase in lobbying registrations related to labor issues at the federal level. Twenty-three new lobbying contracts sprang up during the month to address labor, antitrust and workplace issues and another eleven more registrations occurred in February with a few others coming in March, according to data aggregated by the lobbying tracker.
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Comparing national corporate tax rates
By Joshua Hatch Mar 28, 2011 12:36 p.m.Last week came news that GE has avoided having to pay any -- ANY -- corporate income tax in the United States. As reported in the New York Times, that feat, despite earning $14.2 billion in worldwide profits ($5.1 billion in the U.S.), is due to "innovative accounting" and "fierce lobbying," as well as a large stable of former government officials from the IRS and tax-writing Congressional committees. The article goes on to state that the U.S. has one of the highest corporate income tax rates in the world. But that statement is somewhat misleading, as you'll see below: like General Electric, the effective tax rate of U.S. companies--what they actually pay--is a lot lower than the statutory tax rate--the percentage of corporate income Congress says they should pay.
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Update on House disbursements: A few notes on how to use the data
By Anupama Narayanswamy Mar 24, 2011 1:56 p.m.We've received a few calls about the House disbursements data we published, questioning the total amount spent by various offices. The House Committee on Administration provides two sets of numbers: summary numbers for each office's spending by quarter, including a grand total and a breakdown by category, and detailed files listing every disbursement reported for that quarter. There is a discrepancy between the totals reported in the summary section and the totals arrived at by adding all of the individual disbursements reported in the detail view of our downloadable data. Despite the discrepancy, a review of the data shows that both sets of numbers are accurate, as far as they go.
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One year after passage, health care reform continues to generate lobbying and legal fees
By Sarah Dorsey Mar 23, 2011 3:07 p.m.One year ago today, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. The legislative process that led to the bill's enactment proved to be a boon to lobbyists, including former aides to key members. Industry exerted influence on the administration and members of Congress from early on in the process, and continued lobbying after the bill was passed.
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New federal insurance office has vast power to collect data
By Nancy Watzman Mar 23, 2011 2:19 p.m.Over a year since the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial law, the new Federal Insurance Office, which has broad authority to collect data from the $934 billion industry, finally has a director.
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Congressional office spending by district
By Joshua Hatch Mar 22, 2011 7:11 p.m.Earlier we reported on Congressional office spending. It's one thing to see a list of the top spenders, but it's something else to see that spending mapped according to congressional districts. So that's just what we've done here. Below is a map of 434 congressional districts (we have no data for New Mexico's 3rd district), color coded according to spending. Take a look for yourself (the darker the color, the more the member spent):
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House Members, Committees and Offices Spend $1.36 Billion in 2010
By Anupama Narayanswamy Mar 21, 2011 10:21 a.m.In 2010, members, committees and other offices of the U.S. House of Representatives spent more than $1.36 billion on salaries, benefits, office equipment, travel, consultants and other expenses. Of that, the largest expense--about $1 billion--was for salaries and benefits, followed by spending on rent and communication costs, technology and related maintenance costs.
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