Legistorm: Transparency's Sidekick

The members of the 111th Congress will be officially sworn in Tuesday and LegiStorm has already updated its pages to reflect the new congressional makeup.

We have added all the new freshmen senators and representatives, and have updated the status of those leaving the legislative bodies. We've also added the financial disclosures for the new members filed as candidates, giving their constituents an early look at the new legislators' financial dealings.

We don't yet have biographical information or photos of most of the new members. We'll update those as soon as the official bios and pics are released. We'll also continue updating our lists of members as open seats are filled.

Although embattled Illinois Gov. Rob Blagojevich (D) appointed Roland Burris (D) to fill the Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama, we have not yet added Burris to our list as Senate leaders have vowed to block him from being seated. In another race, Democrat Al Franken was declared the winner for Minnesota's open Senate seat today, but we are waiting to add him to our rolls until all challenges have finished and he is ready to be sworn in.

Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader has a story today about Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) and a charitable foundation the Senator created in 1996, the year the former professional baseball pitcher was elected to that sport's Hall of Fame.

Due to his Hall of Fame status, Bunning can command fees signing autographs for baseball memorabilia collectors. As a Senator, his outside income is limited due to ethics rules, but he can put these fees into his charitable foundation.

However, as his personal financial disclosures available on LegiStorm show, most of the foundation's payouts have gone to Bunning himself. In 2001, Bunning received $15,000 in salary from his foundation. Every year since then, he's reported earning $20,000 in salary. Overall, the Herald-Leader reports that since Bunning's foundation was created, it has raised $504,000 and Bunning has been paid $180,000 in salary. The foundation's charitable donations have totaled $136,435 - with the largest donations going to churches Bunning attends.

The foundation was approved by the Senate Ethics Committee and the IRS when it was created, but several people raised questions in the Herald-Leader's story about the proportion of money that has gone to Bunning's salary as well as the board setup. Rick Robinson - a lobbyist who is one of three members of the foundation's board (along with Bunning's wife and a family friend of the Bunnings) - told the paper the foundation is trying to build a large enough cash reserve so it could give donations using only interest generated by investments. However, he could offer no plan to do so.

read more ...

Reports by The Hill and the New York Post explore possible ethics violations surrounding trips to the Caribbean taken by members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).

The trips, taken in early November to the island of St. Maarten, were sponsored by the New York Carib News, a nonprofit organization that puts out a newspaper focused on Caribbean issues. Carib News indicated on disclosure forms filed with the House that it had not taken donations specifically for the trip - any such donations would be a violation of a recent House Ethics rule. But reports show corporations likely shelled out most of the cash to pay for the conference which was the stated reason for the trips.

The trip was not a one-time affair; New York Carib News has sponsored congressional travel to tropical locations for their business conference every year since at least 2000, when LegiStorm started tracking such travel. But the ethics rule in question was passed two years ago, after Democrats regained control of the House.

read more ...

In what has become an all-too-common pattern this year, another former congressional aide pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy in the long-running Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

James Hirni, a former legislative director to Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.), admitted in court that he helped provide an all-expense paid trip to the 2003 World Series to two congressional aides. At the time, Hirni was a lobbyist working on Abramoff's team.

There's no reason to believe this is the end yet.

One day before Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich was arrested on corruption charges, the Chicago Tribune ran a story on another Illinois politician whose real estate dealings have created at least an impression of shady dealings.

The Tribune's Monday report details real estate deals that have netted Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) more than $400,000 - many of them done with contributors to his campaign. The article cites Gutierrez as saying the real estate deals present no conflict of interest because he is not involved in local zoning matters, but the Tribune reports Gutierrez has asked Chicago politicians to support regulation changes that would benefit his supporters.

Gutierezz disclosed the real estate deals on his personal financial disclosures, which are available at LegiStorm.

Illinois governor and former Rep. Rod Blagojevich (D) was arrested Tuesday morning on corruption charges, including the accusation he essentially put up the open Senate seat formerly held by Barack Obama for the highest bidder.

Even before the arrest, Blagojevich has been under fire. A Chicago Tribune poll in October put his approval rating at 13 percent, and in another poll only 4 percent of respondents said he was doing a "good" job. Those numbers may have made him the most unpopular politician in the country. The latest revelations could make the situation even worse.

Because of the enormous interest in Blagojevich's financial dealings, LegiStorm has added Blagojevich's available state financial disclosures he filed as the governor of Illinois. Blagovich's financial disclosures as a member of Congress are not available as the House only keeps the disclosures on file for six years. Blagovich left his office to run for governor in 2002.

Nearly three years after lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and fraud, the scandal is still playing out.

Thursday, former congressional staffer Trevor L. Blackann pleaded guilty to charges he failed to report gifts he received from lobbyists on this tax returns.

Among the more than $4,000 in gifts received was a trip to New York City for the opening game of the 2003 World Series. Blackann admitted to knowing the trip was paid for by lobbyists. The court documents do not identify the lobbyists in question, but the Department of Justice issued a release calling the case part of the investigation into the lobbying activities of Abramoff. Blackann also did not report the trip to Congress.

read more ...

We are proud to launch the latest free LegiStorm resource, a free searchable database to track the explosive growth of legislative earmarks.

The earmarks database builds on other LegiStorm data so users can find important connections between otherwise unconnected facts, such as between earmarks and the corporate-sponsored travel or personal financial holdings of members of Congress and their staff.

"Earmarks have been at the center of several congressional scandals in the past few years, and openness in the process can help combat potential abuses of the earmark system," said Jock Friedly, a former Capitol Hill investigative reporter who is the founder and president of LegiStorm. "LegiStorm is proud to integrate earmarks data with our other data sets in order to bring deeper insight and increased transparency to congressional and executive spending."

read more ...

When congressional staffers get in trouble, newspapers often cite LegiStorm. Aides rarely do good in the media - if they do, their elected bosses take the credit. 

The Washington Post cited our employment data in reports that one such aide, Jeffrey Rosato of Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) staff, was arrested last Friday on charges of receiving and distributing child pornography. Boxer fired him immediately upon learning of the charges.

The past year has led to several other such news announcements about congressional aides, minors and pornography.

read more ...

The Washington game of musical chairs has begun in earnest as current and former congressional aides angle for new positions. Last week's election has created plenty of opportunity for staffers. Former aides Daniel Maffei, Betsy Markey and Eric Paulsen were actually chosen by voters to return as members of Congress.

One congressional aide has already been named to the new presidential administration. Phil Schiliro, a long-time Hill hand who was chief of staff for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), has been selected the head of President-elect Barack Obama's legislative affairs office during the transition, and is expected to be Obama's legislative affairs director when the new administration takes office in January. Obama will likely take a large cohort of his Senate staff with him, as well. His own chief of staff, Pete Rouse, is co-chairing the transition team and is expected to serve as a deputy chief of staff in the White House.

Jim Messina, a former chief of staff to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), joined the Obama campaign earlier this year and is the personnel director for the transition team. Robert Gibbs served as Obama's Senate communications director before moving to the same role in the campaign and will likely be the next White House press secretary.

As the adminstration takes shape over the coming weeks, expect many other top congressional aides to move up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.