Integrating other dataIt’s not just the contributions

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

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

On the federal level, regulations matter

Companies comment on them

Companies lobby on them

Politicians rail against them

Influence Explorer tracks

comments

Drill down to individual comments

Compare it to their lobbying reports

To get details, hop over to

OpenSecrets.org

What are their big lobbying

issues?

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

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

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

Blunt did go to Mongolia

He’s also a top recipient of

Peabody Energy donations

Not surprising, he’s the home Senator

McCaskill not listed, Talent is

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?

Who’s lobbying for them?

Former staffers, members of

Congress, administration officials

Click yellow icon for

revolvers

Red icon is for ex-

members only

Click icons to get

profiles

Revolving door profile

A lobbyist for Peabody

Energy

Works for K&L Gates

Former staffer for

Max Baucus

Former Senate

Finance staffer

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

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…

Go someplace else to search…

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…

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…

Some info on contacts

Lawmakers

and spouses

named

Expenses

reported

Under groups,

sometimes

whole

committees

are wined &

dined

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

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

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

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…

StateIntegrity.org

Assessments

of state laws

on…

Lobbying

Ethics

Campaign

contributions

Budgeting

Pensions

And more…

And always, feel free to

contact meBill Allison

Editorial Director

Sunlight Foundation

Ballison@sunlightfoundation.com 202-742-1520 ext 224

@bill_allison