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| Chapter 8: Interest Groups |
| Get Involved |
In the fall of 2007, a Democratic Congress enacted, and Republican President George W. Bush signed, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. A series of scandals in 2006 had brought down several United States representatives. Congressional reformers inside and outside of the Capitol demanded changes in how interest groups and politicians could interact. One of the primary changes to the law involved the Internet, and the public’s ability to monitor public transactions in D.C. The act placed a greater amount of public information about money and politics onto the Web. As former House Democratic Caucus chair and newly appointed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said of the new act, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
Sunlight reforms try and check improper influence with greater public exposure and scrutiny of the lawmaking process, and they have a long tradition on Capitol Hill. For the twenty-first century, new technologies like the Internet make it ever easier for good government watchdogs, journalists, and ordinary citizens to follow and monitor what occurs in the nation’s Capitol. |
1. Learn more about interest group politics, lobbying Congress, and controversies about improper influence. Many different public reform organizations try to educate the public with websites.
Visit the following three sites: Common Cause
Public Citizen
Public Campaign Based upon the sites above, what are some of the controversies that “good government” groups today are mobilized around? |
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2. If you wish to “follow the money” in American politics, a great website to start with is the database maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics, located at:
www.opensecrets.org Using the above site, do some research into President-elect Barack Obama and Senator John McCain’s presidential campaigns from the 2008 presidential election. Which interest groups supported them? |
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| 2b. What were some of their biggest individual contributors? |
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3. Many new websites are experimenting with using publicly available information, acquired from the Internet, to lobby for new laws that impact interest groups and politicians.
Review websites like Change Congress attempts to link reform-minded candidates with ordinary citizens. The Sunlight Foundation provides more details about specialized funding, often referred to as earmarks, which now is required to be posted online for public review. Another interesting recent website is www.legistorm.com. This website goes so far as to release salary information, not just of members of Congress, but of legislative staffers on Capitol Hill. If you have ever wondered how much a job in Congress pays, that information too is now accessible online. Look up a member of Congress’s travel schedule, using the following site: www.legistorm.com What trips has that member taken recently? How much did one of those trips cost? |
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3b. Visit the following site:
http://www.theopensenateproject.com/What is the “Open Senate Project” of the Sunlight Foundation? |
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| 3c. What other kinds of information about elected officials would you like to see online? |
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