Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

Feds: Illinois Governor put Obama's Senate seat up for sale

Here's the summary from Congress Daily (subscription only):

Financial Bailout: Do Interests of Automakers and Members Diverge?

Reading the restructuring plan that General Motors put together makes me wonder whether, in a broad sense, there isn't an insuperable conflict of interest between members of Congress and the automakers. Consider just one aspect of the plan:

Financial Bailout: Will Geithner Comply with Bloomberg's FOIA Request?

It's old news now: yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama announced he was picking Timothy Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as his Treasury Secretary.

Financial bailout: Senate approves bill

Details here, vote tallies here.

Financial Bailout: Nothing specific

When I read accounts like this, I'm not surprised that Congress has such low approval ratings:

Financial Bailout: Correlation in contributions and votes in House

Financial Bailout: Fannie Mae announces subpoena

Fannie Mae announced <a href="http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/310522/000129993308004533/0001299933-08-004533.txt">today</a> that it's gotten more subpoenas from the SEC and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York:

Financial Bailout: A look at the House GOP negotiators

Continuing the theme of last night's post (and of several prior posts -- just scroll down), we're taking a look at some of the key players in the financial bailout negotiations, looking at their career contributions from and personal interest in the industry. Thanks to Open Secrets, the Web site of the Center for Responsive Politics, all this information is easily accessible online.

Financial Bailout: 102 pages and counting

This Associated Press report is a little like the early going of an Eric Ambler thriller: a tantalizing hint of the complexity to come, but very little detail about what the twists and turns will be. The market meltdown measure, which began its life as a 3-page bill, has grown:

Financial Bailout: Are congressional leaders invested in the crisis?

Members of Congress continue to debate the bailout package that may well affect the bottom line of every taxpayer in the country, as well as those of big banks, brokerages, and other financial firms. While they hear from numerous experts, including distressed Wall Street titans, on the dangers facing their firms, what sort of exposure do members themselves have if those firms fail?

Financial Bailout: Who do McCain and Obama see at their fundraisers?

Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama are returning to Washington today to lend their legislative talents to the bailout bill working its way through Congress. So let's take a look at the biggest contributors to their presidential campaigns, courtesy of our friends at the Center for Responsive Politics.

Financial Bailout: Who does Frank see at his fundraisers?

Among Rep. Barney Frank's top career donors are employees, their family members and PACs of the following players in the nation's financial meltdown: American Bankers Association (wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to continue paying dividends, despite going bust), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (which bought Bear Stearns), National Association of Realtors (working to "assure a robust secondary mortgage market"), UBS AG (which hopes the bailout will include foreign banks), Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (hopes Congress will "hastily approve" the administration's plan), Credit Union National Association (members are included in any bailout plan), Bank of America (acquired Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial, once the largest mortgage lender in the U.S.), and the Mortgage Bankers Association (opposes efforts to allow bankruptcy judges to alter mortgage terms).

TCS releases searchable earmark lists

While most of Washington fixates on the $700 billion bailout package now being debated by the House Finance and Senate Banking Committees (Rep. Frank has added his own version of a bailout to the ones proposed by the administration and Sen. Christopher Dodd), our friends at Taxpayers for Common Sense are paying attention to some $600 billion in spending that Rep. David Obey, D-Ohio, concocted in secret, or, as he put it to Bloomberg News, operating "the old fashioned way by brokering agreements in order to get things done and I make no apology for it." Taxpayers has posted searchable lists of all the earmarks in the bill.

Financial Bailout: Who does Bachus see at his fundraisers?

Among Rep. Spencer Bachus's top career donors are employees, their family members and PACs of the following players in the nation's financial meltdown: J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (which bought Bear Stearns), Credit Suisse Group (which misled some investors about its auction rate securities), UBS AG (which hopes the bailout will include foreign banks), the National Assn of Realtors (working to "assure a robust secondary mortgage market"), Citigroup Inc ("written off and lost $53.6 billion through the credit crunch so far, which is more than any other bank or broker,"), Bank of America (acquired Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial, once the largest mortgage lender in the U.S.), American Bankers Association (wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to continue paying dividends, despite going bust), Credit Union National Association (members are included in any bailout plan) and Regions Financial (acquired healthy part of distressed bank thanks to FDIC).