As mandated by the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 the United States of America has built and launched a new website for the public to make Freedom of Information Act requests at FOIA.gov, responding to the feedback and recommendations of transparency advocates, journalists and tech … | Continue reading
When Colorado public school teachers rallied in Denver this spring to demand better school funding and retirement benefits, two fed-up GOP legislators had a novel idea: Why not pass a bill to fire the teachers and send them to jail?(sunlightfoundation.com) | Continue reading
On January 6, 2017, President Barack Obama quietly signed a bill that codified the role of the chief technology officer (CTO) of the United States into law. Congress made the US CTO permanent in the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, which passed the Senate on December … | Continue reading
We've been tracking the Trump administration's record on open government since Election Day 2016, when we first posed questions about what open government would mean. Although the Office of the Press Secretary never returned our inquiries, the administration's actions have answer … | Continue reading
Each public statement by a President of the United States matters. In 2017, @realDonaldTrump tweets are statements by the President. We hope that the president and his staff choose those words carefully and transparently. | Continue reading
In May 2016, Sunlight said that Congress should mandate disclosure of the tax returns of presidential candidates. As we detailed, the public can learn a lot from a tax return that's relevant to an electoral decision.In the months since, the need for enacting such a mandate has on … | Continue reading
Secret laws have no place in a democracy. Laws enacted in secret, outside of public view or access, are similarly anathema to a transparent and accountable legislative process that honors the consent of the governed. | Continue reading
The District of Columbia needs to balance privacy with transparency when releasing information on its voters. | Continue reading
Last night, Guardian reporter Ben C. Jacobs tweeted that Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate for Montana's Congressional seat, had "just body slammed me and broke my glasses."A spokesman for the campaign, Shane Scanlon, released a statement that blamed Jacobs and presented a … | Continue reading
Unless Congress takes more time to understand and then to craft careful remedies, the emerging challenges for open government that Facebook is implicated in – from automated activity to algorithmic transparency to public speech on private platforms to data ethics and protections … | Continue reading
The White House hosted a roundtable on using open data for economic outcomes. Here's what we learned, and what we recommended. | Continue reading
Here's hoping we can all find ways to be better neighbors and citizens in the new year. Our governments will only be as good as we make them, together. | Continue reading
Tracking Trump's Conflicts of InterestSunlight’s “Tracking Trump’s Conflicts of Interest” project provides a free, searchable database detailing President Donald J. Trump's known business dealings and personal interests that may conflict with his public duties as President of the … | Continue reading
The selective declassification of this memorandum -- but not the one drafted by Democrats on the committee – is an indicator of bad faith on open government, not a commitment to fully informing the public about how surveillance is used, abused or authorized in U.S. government. | Continue reading
Over the past decade, the legislative branch of the U.S. government has gone through a quiet evolution in information technology. | Continue reading
We’re conducting new research to understand how adopting open data policies affects the number of FOIA requests cities receive, who submits requests, and the type of information citizens seek. | Continue reading
What happens when an administration hands off unfulfilled promises to open government to one that's allergic to transparency? Benign neglect shifts into secrecy and a lack of accountability. | Continue reading