Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I am the Policy
Director of the Sunlight Foundation. The Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to
using the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency.
In my testimony, I would like to offer my organization's perspective on what the necessary components
are of a transparent government, which we believe leads to an ethical one. The Sunlight Foundation’s
work is deeply informed by an appreciation for new information and communications technology, and
while my testimony will reflect that perspective, as it has developed in the context of the federal
government, I hope to offer a range of observations and suggestions from our experiences that that may
help this commission's ambitious scope and mandate.
I would like to start by introducing Sunlight’s three principles for transparency in government, which I
have submitted along with my testimony.
The first of these is that transparency is government's responsibility. Just as the state is the primary
steward of the public welfare, the state is uniquely able to create (or shun) an accountable, transparent
government.
Our second principle is that “Public” should also mean “Online”. When a disclosure requirement is
fulfilled by a single binder the basement of a public building, the public is served poorly. Citizens should
be able to access public information where they expect to find it, and that increasingly means online.
The third principle is that data quality and presentation matter. Even wellintentioned disclosure systems
will fall short of their potential without careful consideration of best practices for online publication.
To live up to the “bond of trust between the people and their elected representatives” referenced by
Governor Quinn in the executive order that created this commission, all branches of government need to
make an affirmative commitment to online transparency and accountability. In the absence of such a
commitment, the mechanisms of public accountability cannot thrive.
The Information of Influence
Government's primary responsibility is to preserve the public trust on which it depends. For that reason,
the Sunlight Foundation has maintained a particular focus on creating digital access to information
pertaining to influence, such as campaign contributions, earmarks, lobbying records, and personal
financial disclosure statements.
For example, one of the Sunlight Foundation's major grantees is the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP).
CRP provides an online access point for campaign contributions and lobbying data, in addition to money
inpolitics analysis. Their work provides essential access to influence data, as evidenced by their millions
of web searches and nearly ubiquitous citations by the media. Most of CRP's work, however, is necessary
only because the government has failed to effective disclose public information online.
The Federal Election Commission was created in 1975 to administer new laws governing elections, and
has as one of its primary mandates the requirement to “disclose campaign finance information.” While
the FEC has invested significantly in their online presence, they have so far been unable to keep up with
the services and search options required by journalists, expert researchers, and programmers. CRP fills
the gap left by the FEC, making possible enormous public oversight that would not otherwise exist.
Sunlight recently began working more closely with the FEC, offering guidance on how to upgrade their
technological infrastructure.
1818 N. St. N.W. ▪ Suite 410 ▪ Washington, D.C. 20036 ▪ Ph: 202-742-1520 Fax: 202-742-1524
Similarly, the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 established the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the
Senate as collectors and distributors of lobbyists’ disclosures. Again, a combination of legal loopholes and
poor public access led to an ineffective system, where outside groups (such as CRP) struggled to fill in the
gaps—digitizing, representing, and analyzing influence data. In 2007, the Honest Leadership and Open
Government Act again strengthened the reporting requirements, resulting in significant public access
improvements. Sunlight pursued many of these reforms vigorously, and while congressional ethics data is
far from perfect (the Senate still reports campaign contributions on paper, for example), we can say it is
improving.
Another significant reform to recently be enacted at the federal level is the Federal Funding
Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA). This bill established a federal website and database to
publish all federal grants and contracts—USASpending.gov. This site was made in the image of its
predecessor, FedSpending.org, created by the nonprofit OMBWatch, with funding from the Sunlight
Foundation. FedSpending.org set a solid standard for online disclosure that the government ultimately
emulated, ultimately copying even the technical documentation of the web services that allow other
programmers to connect to the database. Another bill, proposed to strengthen the disclosure
requirements for USASpending.gov, has yet to pass Congress.
These are but a few examples of government programs that have failed to effectively create access online,
forcing businesses and nonprofits to intervene. One of the Sunlight Foundation's primary goals is to
digitize existing datasets, in recognition of governments’ widespread failure to adequately meet citizens’
needs online. We are digitizing information and building databases wherever information and influence
can both be found. For example, we are taking on disclosures from foreign lobbyists (FARAdb),
invitations to political fundraisers (PoliticalPartytime.org), federal subsidies, tariff suspensions, and even
federal earmarks (EarmarkWatch.org).
State governments should, and often do, learn from many of the federal government’s missteps. For
example, campaign contribution data and lobbying data, available from the State Board of Elections and
the Secretary of State, respectively, should be presented in as useful and timely a manner as possible.
Essential databases such as these should also be designed to maximize public usage, through the bulk
data access and APIs that allow programmers and analysts to visualize and pore through data in often
unexpected ways.
New online tools can help us identify loopholes in existing ethics and disclosure laws, and help us create
real disincentives against abusive public servants, strengthening the public trust and solidifying our
ethics laws.
Transparent government, however, isn’t solely designed to make corruption less attractive. Public access
can lead to positive incentives, and even allow for citizen collaboration with government.
Public Collaboration
The Sunlight Foundation has also demonstrated the utility of digital tools for public collaboration.
Our EarmarkWatch.org project digitized congressionally earmarked spending projects, and then built a
tool for public analysis. Visitors to the site are encouraged to analyze individual earmark requests for their
potential ethical implications, performing small tasks that, in aggregate, demonstrate the enormous
potential for distributed oversight. Digitized earmark information also allowed us to create a Google
Earth visualization of earmark recipients, allowing an ataglance view of congressional districts receiving
federal funds.
1818 N. St. N.W. ▪ Suite 410 ▪ Washington, D.C. 20036 ▪ Ph: 202-742-1520 Fax: 202-742-1524
When the Sunlight Foundation prepared a comprehensive transparency reform bill, instead of meeting
directly with potential sponsors on the Hill, we posted the bill online for public review on
PublicMarkup.org. Within a few weeks, expert analysts and advocates posted comments on each section
of the bill, producing a much stronger bill than we could have produced alone. This has helped policy
makers to recognize public interaction as a source of both policy substance and political clout.
I have led the Sunlight Foundation’s Open House Project since January 2007, developing proposals for
transparency reform for the US House of Representatives, largely through a blog and public email list.
Organized initially around a receptive Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, the community developed a
recommendations report, and has continued to grow and advocate for reform since the report's
publication in May of 2007. Many of the report's recommendations have been enacted, from incremental
improvements in the information offered by Members and committees, to a comprehensive change in
how Members of Congress are allowed to use the Internet.
As receptive staffers and Members adjust to the world of online interactions, they are also building trust
with the public—by proving that they can find value in public interaction, and also by slowly improving
access to the procedures of government.
While not every citizen will draft a law or attend a committee hearing, citizens have a right to expect
access to the same schedules, transcripts, videos, and other documents that lawmakers, administrators,
and lobbyists use to do their jobs. To build the trust of citizens, government needs to at least make it
possible for citizens to contribute.
What Should Be Public?
Given the fundamental civic importance of public information, governments face the complex task of
meeting citizens’ expectations for online information. As businesses face the incentives of competition,
they have developed realtime reporting systems to serve their customers that are years ahead of
analogous government systems.
To answer the question of what should be available online, it may be useful to first ask what should not be
online.
Generally, standards for redaction or withholding information are well established. Government is
justified in withholding information that has personal information that would violate citizens’ privacy,
information that businesses are justified in withholding (like trade secrets), information where the
potential for public harm outweighs the public’s right to know, and information that would keep the
government from being able to effectively deliberate or function.
Other public information that does not fit these criteria should be public, and available online.
Of course, digitizing all governmental information presents an enormous and expensive task, and will
take years of effort and careful planning, but our public access goal should be clear: realtime, online
disclosure. I have included along with my testimony a general plan appropriate for agencies addressing
their information policies and Internet presence.
Freedom of Information Laws and Electronic Record Keeping
As long as citizens do not have access to all public information, our Freedom of Information (FOI) Laws
stand to fill the gaps, allowing citizens to assert their right to know. The hallmark of public access since
their inception, FOI Laws are designed to enable citizens to hold even unresponsive governments to
account.
1818 N. St. N.W. ▪ Suite 410 ▪ Washington, D.C. 20036 ▪ Ph: 202-742-1520 Fax: 202-742-1524
FOI Laws should be strongly drafted and enforced, and government heads should assert a presumption
toward openness. Abuse of FOI exemptions should not be tolerated.
In order for FOI Laws to remain effective in the face of increasingly digital governments, electronic
recordkeeping standards need to be similarly well drafted and enforced. Information requests and public
disclosure will only work if our governments’ information is well organized and categorized.
The Federal Government faces systemwide failures to set policies governing the creation, processing, and
eventually, disposition or preservation of official records. The results for public access and accountability
will be dire without better guidance and enforcement from records managers.
Haphazard organization and unclear guidelines threaten to complicate FOI requests and effectively erase
a portion of our governments’ history, as official records get lost in the increasing quantity of electronic
documents. Proactive government disclosure will only be possible if the information to be disclosed is
handled guidelines and standards.
A Culture of Openness
Ultimately, these mechanisms for public accountability can be thwarted when governments are controlled
by those who seek to abuse the public trust.
The hardest aspect of an ethical government to institutionalize is a culture of openness, where
government is staffed by capable people who believe in the public’s right to know, and who pursue their
jobs in good faith with the public’s interests at heart.
This commission, with its public proceedings, interactive design, and timely mission, should be a step in
that direction.
I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
Resources
Open Government Data Principles: http://resource.org/8_principles.html
Federal Web Managers Council White Paper:
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/documents/Federal_Web_Managers_WhitePaper.pdf
Electronic Recordkeeping Report: http://www.openthegovernment.org/otg/Managing%20The
%20Public%27s%20Records%20.pdf
FEC testimony: (digital copy submitted)
Principles for Transparency: (digital copy submitted)
Open House Project Blog: http://www.theopenhouseproject.com
Open House Project Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/openhouseproject
Agency Plan:
1. Information Audit:Agencies should undertake a comprehensive audit of their information, and
the processes they use to collect it. The audit should focus on providing a comprehensive
inventory of all data collected by the agency, agency engagement online, and electronic record
keeping practices.
1818 N. St. N.W. ▪ Suite 410 ▪ Washington, D.C. 20036 ▪ Ph: 202-742-1520 Fax: 202-742-1524
2. Data Handling: Agency databases should serve as the platform on which agencies function, and
public access to data is only possible if agencies design their databases with specific outcomes in
mind. The processes used to gather, organize, and transmit data within agencies, and to the
public online, should be examined and upgraded, to increase the reach of vital government
information.
◦ Paperbased processes should be digitized.
◦ Electronic reporting systems should be devised for all filings and the information should be
fed directly into online databases.
◦ Coordinated metadata standards must be developed to allow for interoperability of all
databases within an agency or department, and thoughout the government as a whole.
◦ Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and bulk data access must be implemented
across all data sets, to allow for advanced analysis and programming.
◦ The 8 Open Government Data Principles should be implemented, making all government
data: complete, primary, timely, accessible, machine processable, nondiscriminatory, non
proprietary, and licensefree.
3. Electronic Recordkeeping: The official records created by agency employees are the foundation
for public information, digital preservation, and the operations of each agency. Electronic
recordkeeping standards and enforcement have fallen behind, as agencies increasingly rely on
electronic documents. New standards and enforcement should be developed to govern electronic
records management throughout their lifecycle.
4. Agency Engagement Online: Agencies’ web presence should be considered a strategy for
achieving agency goals and to enhance transparency—not just an extension of the
communications department. Agencies should consider public input and online collaboration as
potential strategies for all agency initiatives. Transparency in all operations should be adopted as
a core agency value, and this should be pursued in both agency websites and in nonagency
communities online, where social networks hold immense and largely untapped potential.
1818 N. St. N.W. ▪ Suite 410 ▪ Washington, D.C. 20036 ▪ Ph: 202-742-1520 Fax: 202-742-1524