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Lobbyists
This information may be somehow available somewhere, I don't know.
But since the lobbyists control Congress by their "contributions," it would be nice to find out easily what lobbyist, working for what interest group/corporation, is contributing how much money, to what Congressmen, regarding what legislation, pro or con.

Why Is This Idea Important?

Lobbyists are making a mockery of this democracy.
Comments
erick.gonzalez 9 months ago
Not gonna happen, Obama himself has been a recipient of lobbyist money in the past.

We are not there yet buddy.
chalk 9 months ago
Here is a list of the President's top donors. It would be fair to know when and why he meets with them during his Presidency. This would go a long way in creating a more open presidency.

University of California $1,385,675
Goldman Sachs $980,945
Microsoft Corp $806,299
Harvard University $793,460
Google Inc $790,564
Citigroup Inc $657,268
JPMorgan Chase & Co $650,758
Stanford University $580,904
Sidley Austin LLP $574,938
Time Warner $547,951
National Amusements Inc $541,251
WilmerHale $524,292
UBS AG $522,019
IBM Corp $518,557
Skadden, Arps et al $510,274
Columbia University $503,566
Morgan Stanley $490,873
General Electric $479,454
Latham & Watkins $467,311
lahojoel 9 months ago
A database of all contributions could be on the web, accessible to anyone.
More to the point, get the money and the secrecy out of the people's business.
patriotact 9 months ago
have you seen http://www.opensecrets.org ?
i think its what you are looking for.
luvwith 9 months ago
We must have public financing of campaigns...period!

I know you think you don't want to pay for it...but you already ARE!

Every no bid contract, every unpaid royalty on an oil lease, every blocked piece of legislation that is supported by the majority because some committee head is paid off or intimidated into inaction, every blocked investigation...YOU PAY AND PAY AND PAY!

You pay hundreds of times what you would to finance campaigns in A CORRUPTION SURCHARGE!
Martin 9 months ago
Lobbyists are not the problem, they are only a symptom. If politicians didn't accept their money or gave more weight to constituents' voices lobbyists wouldn't be an issue.

Either way increasing openness in lobbyist contributions and activity will do nothing. Will you go through every donation with a fine-toothed comb? You probably won't and neither will most voters. We should be evaluating politician performance based on their actions, not what is influencing those actions. If you agree with their decisions then why should you care if a lobbyist convinced them to do it?
silona 9 months ago
It should be posting on the website in a citable format!

one donation per paragraph! with a web citable URL so that I can reference it specifically in my blog post on the topic!

Citability.org
owen 9 months ago
Lobbyists should be required to document their goals, objectives, and stakeholders (clients and MCs) on the Web in conformance with AIIM's emerging Strategy Markup Language (StratML) standard. http://xml.gov/stratml/index.htm
russell 9 months ago
it seems like this is in line with http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/2847-4049
davidwseattle 9 months ago
Contributions for campaign donations and lobbying for all federal offices by corporations, industries, and individuals, etc. are available at opensecrets.com. It's an essential site for finding out who pays who.
Jonathan Geeting 9 months ago
How about pie charts showing where individual members of Congress' fundraising comes from - business PAC contributions could be broken down by industry. Members could also be required to post who they meet with and who is lobbying them. Before we crack down on lobbying activities, lets see if they change for the better when we make them operate in the sunlight.
stan.sso 9 months ago
@owen,

Sorry my friend. that would be a restriction on our 1st Amendment rights.

All an autocratic government would need to do is declare that anyone petitioning government is a lobbyist, and require us to publicly disclose our support and opposition to the policies advanced by our elected officials.
merveilleux24 9 months ago
There is already a site for this, Open Secrets, as patriotact has pointed out. It's best to have a third-party, not the government do this, anyway. But making sure that to such websites are readily available would be an admirable objective.
tomgoldie 9 months ago
Chalk -- where did you get that info?

Stan.sso -- not really, my small donations are ALREADY listed online. I don't see any problem with that, as I favor full disclosure and unlimited contributions.

I just want to know how BIG companies are able to give so much, while small donors are so limited!
Debra Bryant 9 months ago
Want to see the surplus money the US government and all states, local governments have? http://CAFR1.com and http://TaxRetirement.com
and support Campaign for Liberty
activistmotivator 9 months ago
I agree. This is an important issue facing our nation today.

According to the 2009 Global Corruption Barometer released yesterday, "55% of respondents in high-income countries report it is common for bribes to influence the policy-making process!"

Is the US Lobby system a form of authorized bribery?

The Lobby System disenfranchises all citizens by allowing corporations to essentially write or re-write favorable legislature.

Is this corruption? State Capture by powerful oligopolies?

Antitrust laws have been severely weakened by these oligopolies monopolistic tactics and by the strength of perpetual corporate immortality and its rights as citizen.

President Obama must follow through on his promise to reform (remove) the Lobby System that legitimizes corruption and undermines democracy world-wide.

To possibly re-enact Sherman-Antitrust-Act or Clayton-Antitrust-Act and to definitely repeal corporate personhood.

More at http://activism101.ning.com/forum/topics/is-it-ok-for-your
npolimeni 9 months ago
This is a worthwhile idea, as many others that promote transparency. Maintaining this kind of information can be costly if not properly organized and properly funded.

Those who support this idea and perhaps many other ideas in this site would be helping its implementation by supporting the "Funding New Ideas Pilots" because it is a means to fund the implementation of good ideas. The costs would be minimal for pilots, and it would prove or disprove the workability, and with proven workability it would be difficult many legislators to stand against them for permanent addition to the law.
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