Podcast and Q & A with The Sunlight Foundation

"The Sunlight Foundation will help change the culture of Congress by exposing the identity, nature and means of those involved in corruption and by fostering greater transparency and accountability by all its members, in the belief that, as Justice Brandeis said, 'Sunlight is the best disinfectant.'"- From our Q & A (below) with The Sunlight Foundation.

Yesterday we were visited by the Sunlight Foundation as part of the Berkman Luncheon Series. If you weren't able to join us via webcast or right here at the Berkman Center, we've got a Q&A with the Foundation below and a new AudioBerkman podcast of their talk.

Question 1: You will be launching Sunlight Foundation very shortly. What is the goal of this organization and how did it get its start?

The goal of the Sunlight Foundation is to promote greater examination of the inner workings of Congress through a combination of grant-making and programs that will stimulate more investigative attention to the institution and its members. It will do so by producing analyses, studies, and information about lawmakers, legislation and lobbyists; providing new tools and training to make essential data more easily accessible to reporters and citizen activists; creating an interactive conversation with the public about how Congress does its work using paid advertising, outreach to editorial boards, web and local activism; providing grants to writers, media outlets and bloggers; and establishing awards and incentive grants for investigative reporting on Congress.

Question 2: What's your timeline? Your plans for the next month? The next six months?

We’re still in “pre-launch” mode, in the sense that we haven’t formally gone public (though you could say our talk at Berkman is the start of a “soft launch”), and we aren’t quite ready to put our website up for public view. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t busy. We have partnered with one public interest organization that is putting together a site that will enable the public to play a big role in collecting data and tracking the statements and actions of all 535 members of Congress, which will launch in mid-to-late March. And we have begun making grants to watchdog groups in the business of making data available to the public on Congress’s doings. As a result, some data that is currently disclosed by Congress but only in paper form—personal financial disclosure statements, travel records, and lobbying records—will soon be available in digital form.

Question 3: Why is transparency so important?

A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll by Peter Hart reported that 79 percent of the American public believes that Congress is broken and that most of its members have been corrupted. Democrats and Republicans are seen as almost equally vulnerable on the issue of corruption. Consequently, many Americans – and most of our children – see our political system as not being worthy of their attention or engagement. The nation’s future as a democracy is thus in danger at precisely the point at which we face dramatic new challenges to our prosperity and safety. The core of the corruption problem can be conveyed by this hypothetical story: If tomorrow Congress was called upon to pass a simple bill to confirm what day of the week it was, that bill likely would emerge with three special interest riders. The riders would be there first, because of the insidious power of the influence industry – money and lobbyists – and second, because the influence industry and the influenced politicians have correctly concluded that their risk of being exposed and paying a price for their conduct is remote. Sunlight was conceived from the belief that corruption cannot stand the light of day, and that greater transparency will foster greater accountability. (One long-time investigative reporter, Elizabeth Drew, remarked to us “they do it because they can get away with it.”) We need greater transparency to help restore the health of our democracy.

Question 4: What role do you play in changing our political culture? What role do you play in improving transparency?

The Sunlight Foundation will help change the culture of Congress by exposing the identity, nature and means of those involved in corruption and by fostering greater transparency and accountability by all its members, in the belief that, as Justice Brandeis said, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

Question 5: You describe this in part as a citizen effort. In what ways can people get involved with Sunlight Foundation today?

Well, it’s a little early to get involved. But in a month’s time, we’ll be opening our doors (online and on the ground) and there will be plenty of ways to get involved then. We believe that civic engagement is vital to restoring the health of our democracy, and in particular are very excited by the power of citizen networks to tackle distributed projects that old-fashioned media either can’t do or no longer seem interested in doing. Stay tuned for details.