Integrating Other Data by Bill Allison
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The document discusses the importance of integrating various data sources to construct comprehensive stories about lobbying, legislation, and regulatory actions. It provides tools to explore federal and state regulatory matters, lobbying records, and spending, highlighting the challenges of navigating differing state disclosure laws. Additionally, it emphasizes the significance of understanding business influences and relationships with lawmakers through various resources and platforms.
Integrating Other Data by Bill Allison
- 1. Integrating other data It’s not just the contributions
- 2. Remember what makes a good story… It’s not just one piece of data or one fact Rather, link together a series of facts that show a story Lobbying Legislation Regulatory actions Contracting
- 3. Here are some tools to help you …find out about federal regulatory matters …find out what contributors want from Washington (lobbying records) …find out about federal spending …find out about sources of state data …find out how much you can find out a business
- 4. On the federal level, regulations matter Companies comment on them Companies lobby on them Politicians rail against them
- 6. Drill down to individual comments
- 7. Compare it to their lobbying reports
- 8. To get details, hop over to OpenSecrets.org
- 9. What are their big lobbying issues?
- 10. Information taken from lobbying reports These show broad issues. If you click the number in the middle column, you can see the detailed descriptions, sometimes including bills and regulations they lobby on
- 11. Way down the page, we see they’re monitoring regulations Not always as specific as we’d like It’s good to read through all the specific issues You learn a lot about what government is doing from these You learn a lot about business too
- 12. Here is a real rarity Disclosed meeting with U.S. Senators Disclosed topics of meetings Met with Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. Met with Sen. Claire McCaskill, R-Mo. Discussed Mongolia trip by Blunt Discussed investment in Asia
- 13. Blunt did go to Mongolia
- 14. He’s also a top recipient of Peabody Energy donations Not surprising, he’s the home Senator McCaskill not listed, Talent is
- 15. A May 27, 2008, wikileaks cable Peabody officials in Mongolia Seeking concessions to mine there Peabody met with opposition leaders What is Blunt talking about there three years later?
- 16. Who’s lobbying for them?
- 17. Former staffers, members of Congress, administration officials Click yellow icon for revolvers Red icon is for ex- members only Click icons to get profiles
- 18. Revolving door profile A lobbyist for Peabody Energy Works for K&L Gates Former staffer for Max Baucus Former Senate Finance staffer
- 19. What can we find at the state level? Be aware that there’s no uniformity among state lobbying disclosure Some are similar to federal disclosures Others show only wining & dining of lawmakers Some show less than that
- 20. Not the most user-friendly database Look up organizations in one place to see who they hire… Then search in another place for what they’re doing You need to keep a lot of tabs open on your browser…
- 21. Go someplace else to search…
- 22. Results! And they’re not pretty Have to click through each monthly report Some might useful, some aren’t NIMSP is looking at the problem But with 50 different systems to tackle…
- 23. Have to do this the old fashioned way Have to click through every report I did so you won’t have to Here’s what’s disclosed in Missouri…
- 24. Some info on contacts Lawmakers and spouses named Expenses reported Under groups, sometimes whole committees are wined & dined
- 25. At the very bottom… …we see who put up the massive sum of $180. Note that we don’t see lobbying fees Note that, unlike federal lobbying, issues aren’t reported At least you have enough information to know who to call
- 26. Some good resources for navigating what’s available NIMSP has a run down of all state laws on lobbying disclosure National Conference on State Legislatures has pages too Groups that do a lot of lobbying, like Assoc. Builders & Contractors, have lists & links too
- 27. Why this is important Companies you cover can have issues in multiple states Their bottom lines can be affected by decisions made far from their headquarters
- 28. A few other resources… OpenMissouri.org is a hugely useful reference on gov’t data sets Even if you’re not from Missouri, it’s worth looking at Get ideas for data sets that might be available in your state…
- 29. StateIntegrity.org Assessments of state laws on… Lobbying Ethics Campaign contributions Budgeting Pensions And more…
- 30. And always, feel free to contact me Bill Allison Editorial Director Sunlight Foundation Ballison@sunlightfoundation.com 202-742-1520 ext 224 @bill_allison