Bill Allison, Sunlight Foundation editorial director, provides a guide for integrating additional data into your investigative reporting during the free, daylong workshop, "Follow the Money -- Tracking Companies' Influence on Politics."
For more information about free training for business journalists, please visit businessjournalism.org.
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
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
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?
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…
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