Taxpayers for Common Sense has completed its database of fiscal year 2008 appropriations bills earmarks.
Congress inserted 12,881 earmarks worth $18.3 billion into this year’s spending bills, $14.8 billion of which were disclosed by lawmakers. This represents a 23 percent cut in total earmarks from the high water mark of 2005, but a smaller cut than the 50 percent reduction House leadership initially set as its goal.Sphere: Related Content
Sunshine Week, which is March 16-22, has begun compiling an unprecedented Web database that will chronicle the positions of candidates running for president and Congress on issues of government openness, access and secrecy.
Sunshine Week Campaign database planned
From David Westphal, and Pat Yack, co-chairs of ASNE's Freedom of Information Committee:
Sunshine Week has begun compiling an unprecedented Web database that will chronicle the positions of candidates running for president and Congress on issues of government openness, access and secrecy. We're calling this the Sunshine Campaign.
Our aim is a one-of-a-kind repository that will inform voters on where candidates stand, and will serve as a touchstone for measuring the winning candidates' performance in office.
We need your help in asking candidates their views on Freedom of Information issues. Many of you will have the chance, over the next 14 months, to grill candidates in editorial board meetings, debates, town-hall meetings and on-the-road reporting. We'd like to suggest that these are golden opportunities to ask what we think are among the most important questions of the campaign.
We've put together a list of questions we hope will get to as many candidates as possible, but we encourage you to formulate your own as well. We also hope you'll take this model and apply it to candidates at the state and local level.
We know there's never enough time to ask all the questions that need to be asked, but access to government information lies at the heart of our democracy. At a time when world events have prompted strong pleas from some to expand secrecy in government, it is fundamental to the public interest to know where the candidates stand — just as we need to know their views on war and peace, jobs and the economy.
Getting candidates to address openness issues is the big challenge. But we ask your help as well in getting their answers to Sunshine Week Coordinator Debra Gersh Hernandez, who will compile this searchable database. Simply e-mail transcripts or clips — from your reporting or from others' that you spot — to Deb at dghernandez@asne.org.
Visit Sunshineweek.org for more of the story.
Public Citizen has announced that they and two other consumer groups are sueing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for failing to administer a database of defective vehicles. The lawsuit asks the court to find the DOJ in violation of a 1992 law for not having established the database or even the regulations setting it up. The suits ask the court to order the DOJ to issue the regulations within 30 days of finding the agency in violation.
Under the 1992 law, junk and salvage yard operators are required to file monthly reports to the database operator. Each report is supposed to contain a list of the vehicle identification numbers of all junk and salvage vehicles obtained during the previous month. The law also requires insurance companies to file similar reports. But the DOJ has yet to establish regulations that would tell insurance companies and junk and salvage yards how to report their information.
This is a campaign finance report of U.S. Representative Neugebauer; it is derived from free links in this blog's "Campaign Finance Databases" in the left column (CQ's Moneyline database is fee-based). It is just one thing you can do for your own representatives; you can also search their campaign finances, government finances, ethics violations and other news. Then, cull from your reports information that may be useful in your communications, and, ultimately, in your votes next election day.
A subscription based government finance database is available to the general public from Syracuse University. Here is subscriber info. culled from TRAC to help you in your purchase decision:
For $50/month, a TRACFED monthly personal subscription provides:
All TRACFED information resources
Individual Web Locker to store search results
Free on-line help services plus discounts on TRAC training and course offerings.
For more detailed information, see our Fees page.
The spending of tax dollars for public services is a central function of the federal government. Government workers must be paid. Government programs must be operated. Government supplies must be purchased. Government assistance programs for individuals , for corporations and for special functions like schools and scientific research must be distributed. So detailed information about where and when and how the federal government is spending the taxes it collects is as important as comprehensive data abou t where and when and how the federal agencies and prosecutors are enforcing the law. The range of federal spending is vast. There are Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare payments, federal grants to state and local governments, federal funds to defen se contractors, federal support for numerous insurance and loan programs.
Changes in the mix and amounts of these programs disclose and document important shifts -- sometimes unannounced -- in government priorities. Regional variations in federal spending always are interesting and sometimes raise questions of questionable mana gement practices and even corruption.
Are federal program equitable? Are they efficient? What is the government spending in your backyard?
Information includes actual dollar expenditures (as well as these figures after inflation adjustments), per capita expenditures, percentages and rankings.
For access to how federal funds are distributed within the states, counties, and 90 federal judicial districts:
Go to TRAC Express and select the area or agency or program of interest.
After choosing the variables, submit your order and the requested information will be returned almost immediately to your browser for printing or downloading.
For more help on which menu item best suits your needs, take the "Guided Tour” which you will find under the "help” menu.
I have broken up the "Government Reform-Related Databases" list on the left column into two lists: "Campaign Finance Databases" and "Government Finance Databases". This makes it easier to pick and choose the databases you need for any one project.
There are seven campaign-related databases for when you want to background check each of your candidates, on the state and national levels. Plus, there are nine databases for when you want to check existing elected officials of state legislatures and Washington and their spending habits.
Advances in internet technology has made these databases possible, with many developed just in the last couple of years. They are easy to use, and they make a great study for the next time you write your next letter to any of your representatives, or when you write that letter to the editor.
We've added a new list on the left panel of this page, called "Government Reform-Related Databases". It is a links list of user-friendly search engines for money in politics data.
Developing internet technology has enabled public interest groups such as the Sunshine Foundation to make government data more accessible to the general public. As more come online, I will add them here.
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