MEDIA ADVISORY

Contacts: Adam Hughes or Sean Moulton, 202.234.8494

For Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2006 at 9:30a.m.

OMB WATCH AND THE CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS
UNVEIL FEDERAL SPENDING OVERSIGHT TOOLS
Reporters Can Track Federal Spending, Congressional Conflicts,
Junkets and the Revolving Door

Washington, D.C.- OMB Watch and the Center for Responsive Politics are launching powerful new Web-based tools to help reporters and the public track government spending and increase congressional accountability.

On Oct. 10, 2006 at 9:30a.m. the tools will be unveiled in the Lisagor Room of the National Press Club. The one-hour event - which can also be viewed online at www.ConnectLive.com/events/sunlightfoundation - will feature a 30-minute press conference and 30-minute introductory demo of the new sites. The new Web tools will be of particular use to reporters who cover Congress, business, politics, the federal budget, and lobbyists.

For the first time, itemized information on the more than $12 trillion that the federal government has disbursed between 2000 and 2005 will be available to the public on a user-friendly, searchable Web site. FedSpending.org, a project of OMB Watch, provides citizens with a detailed look at how the government sets national priorities and allocates federal resources.

Also at the event, the Center for Responsive Politics will release three new online databases on OpenSecrets.org - one that digitizes financial disclosure forms filed by members of Congress, making them fully searchable, a second that contains information on junkets taken by members and their staffs but paid for by private interests, and a third, work-in-progress database tracking the revolving door in Washington.

With the click of a mouse, visitors to FedSpending.org can learn that in 2005, the Defense Department issued the largest amount of contracts ($272.9 billion); that Florida's 14th congressional district (represented by Connie Mack) received the most federal assistance money since 2000 - including grants, loans, insurance, and direct payments ($101.9 billion); that of the $24.8 billion in contracts that Lockheed Martin, the government’s largest contractor, won in FY 2005, only one-third were awarded through full and open competition.

FedSpending.org allows users to search and aggregate contract and grant information in a number of ways: by individual recipient, by agency, by congressional district and by state, and allows citizens to see exactly where their tax dollars are being spent.

The Center for Responsive Politics databases, meanwhile, will allow the public for the first time to search congressional financial disclosure records by company name, sector and industry. Users will be able to see overviews of the net worth of members, their top holdings, and answer questions including how many members own stock in pharmaceutical firms, oil companies and other industries they oversee.

The Center for Responsive Politics will also provide updated information on junkets taken by members of Congress and their staff, allowing the public to see whether members have taken fewer trips financed by third parties - in many cases special interests with business before Congress - in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandals. Abramoff's practice of taking members on lavish overseas trips - including one to visit the exclusive St. Andrews Links golf course in Scotland - focused the public's attention on the practice.

And the Center will launch a revolving door database, a work-in-progress that will eventually track all former members and staff who register to lobby the government, including information on their clients and their campaign contributions.

Each of the new databases provide journalists and the public with detailed information on some of the most important issues at the forefront of the 2006 election. FedSpending.org makes available much of the information that the recently passed Federal Accountability and Transparency Act will require the Office of Management and Budget to provide to the public. FedSpending.org will function not only as a tool for the public and journalists to find out about government spending, but also as a prototype against which to measure the success of OMB's endeavor.

OMB Watch was founded in 1983 to increase government transparency and accountability; to ensure sound, equitable regulatory and budgetary processes and policies; and to protect and promote active citizen participation in our democracy. The organization envisions a more just and democratic society, one in which an open, responsive government protects people’s health, safety, and well-being, safeguards the environment, honors the public’s right to information, values an engaged and effective citizenry, and adequately invests in the common good.

The Center for Responsive Politics is the nation’s premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Founded in 1983, the non-partisan, non-profit Center aims to create a more educated voter, an involved citizenry and a more responsive government. CRP's award-winning Web site, OpenSecrets.org, is the most comprehensive, up-to-date resource for campaign contributions and analysis available anywhere. Support for CRP comes from a combination of foundation grants and individual contributions. The Center accepts no contributions from businesses or labor unions.

The Financial Disclosure and Travel databases and FedSpending.org were made possible by grants from the Sunlight Foundation, which supports using new information technologies to enable citizens to learn more about what Congress and their elected representatives are doing to ensure greater transparency and accountability by government, help reduce corruption, and foster public trust in the vital institutions of democracy.