Journalists don’t exactly have a reputation as math wizards. But analyzing public data is an important part of holding the government accountable. Under a new effort to increase transparency, the Obama administration is aiming to “disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily use.” Agencies are encouraged to publish information online. In addition, there are existing sources for data that journalists can use to launch stories and further investigations.
From campaign donations and lobbying expenses to investments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus bill, here are some sources that make finding government information easier.
Campaign money
The Federal Election Commission collects information on campaign donations to candidates running for federal office in its disclosure database. Users can download the original filings, and electronic filings of campaign records are available on the Web almost immediately. This is where you can find out that Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., gave $40,000 to one of his top aides the day after Massa resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal.
The FEC also posts updates and information on its Disclosure Data Weblog, where it recently announced it’s working on a database of candidate campaign spending.
The Center for Responsive Politics has analyzed and grouped the FEC data and publishes that database on its own website, opensecrets.org. Here, you can see how much members of certain industries, such as health care professionals or lawyers, donated to a candidate. The site also includes information on campaign expenditures. For those wary of combing through the FEC data themselves, Open Secrets provides a good overview of a candidate’s campaign records.
Web of Influence
Harder to quantify than campaign donations is the influence powerful people exert. Lobbyists have to file reports with both the House and Senate, which are available online at disclosure.senate.gov and lobbyingdisclosure.house.gov.
Who tries to sway a lawmaker’s opinon is also one of the areas the Sunlight Foundation focuses on.
“Our sweet spot is looking at influence data,” said spokeswoman Gabriela Schneider. Started four years ago, the foundation aims at providing journalists and bloggers with better access to data.
On its site politicalpartytime.org, the foundation collects data on who hosts and attends fundraisers in support of members of Congress. The information is based on invitatitions the Sunlight Foundation is sent by its sources, and while it isn’t exclusive it offers a starting point to see who’s hanging out with whom, and how much they’re paying for it. Users can find out who’s holding fundraisers at a Bon Jovi concert or a hockey game (members of Congress seem to have a taste for rock ‘n’ roll — nearly two dozen of them held fundraisers at Bruce Springsteen concerts, the Washington Post reported.)
The foundation also gives grants to organizations for data-based projects and holds training sessions and webinars for journalists with rusty Excel skills. “It’s very important to not just have access to the data but also tell stories that bring it to life,” Schneider said. “That’s why we also do training with journalists so that they know about the data and how to use the data and different websites… as a starting point to inform reporting.”
Government records
Under Obama’s directive for a more open government, federal agencies have to work toward making information they collect publicy available and accessible. The White House links to the individual departments’ websites.
Information from the Envrionmental Protection Agency to the Department of Veteran’s Affairs can also be found on data.gov, available for download and further analysis. Only a few states have similar sites, but those are also linked to from the federal website.
Follow the money, times 787 billion
Analyzing whether stimulus money is spent correctly is a huge task, considering the size of the funds authorized in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The official site for data on stimulus spending is recovery.gov. On the site, users can download the file containing all reported stimulus spending (because of the file’s size, I recommend using a recent version of Excel and a fast computer—that and some patience while running your queries). Take a look at the user guide for the stimulus spreadsheet before starting your analysis as well.
Some states, too, are putting up stimulus spending data — Virginia’s official site, for example, is at stimulus.virginia.gov, and a site built by George Mason University is here.
Jessica Binsch is a multimedia reporter covering National Security and is set to graduate from Medill in June 2010. She wrote this opinion piece for Washington Reporting 2.0., an occasional column about the experience of reporting.