Just when it seems like there is nothing but bad news coming from Capitol Hill, here’s some unexpected good tidings – Rep. Mike Quigley, D-IL, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, are the co-chairmen of the newly formed Congressional Transparency Caucus in the House.
There are 18 members in the innaugural group of the Transparency Caucus, including nine Democrats and nine Republicans. Besides Quigley and Issa, the members include representatives Melissa Bean, D-IL, Jason Chaffetz, R-UT, Lloyd Doggett, D-TX, Vern Ehlers, R-MI, Bill Foster, D-IL, Steve Israel, D-NY, Walter B. Jones, R-NC, Jim Jordan, R-OH, Mark Kirk, R-IL, Doug Lamborn, R-CO, Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-MO, Patrick McHenry, R-NC, Walt Minnick, D-ID, Jared Polis, D-CO, Tim Ryan, D-OH, Aaron Schock, R-IL, Mark Souder, R-IN, and Jackie Speier, D-CA.
The Transparency Caucus is organized to advance seven principles, including:
* The American people have the right to public access to all of their government’s information (with a few well-defined exceptions).
* The American people have the right to analyze their government’s information.
* The American people have the right to inter-active access to federal laws, regulations, and rules.
* The American people have the right to track the federal budget and to scrutinize all federal spending.
* The American people have the right to demand objective, transparent performance standards for all federal agencies.
* The American people have the right to aggressive, independent oversight.
* We must institutionalize a culture of open government.
This is good news because, as I have vigorously argued for years now, there is a transpartisan coalition developing in American politics of people within and without government and crossing the ideological and partisan spectrum who believe transparency and accountability are critically important and that the Internet offers incredible opportunities and technologies for advancing these two values.
Impetus for creating the Transparency Caucus came from the Sunlight Foundation, a trans-partisan group that has often been lauded in this newspaper’s editorial pages. Go here for more info on the Transparency Caucus and the Sunlight Foundation.
The Transparency Caucus will hold its first official event April 29 at 1 pm. Following remarks by Quigley and Issa, there will be a panel discussion featuring Sunlight’s policy counsel, Daniel Schuman, panel discussion with Scott Amey, general counsel and senior investigator with the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), and Jerry Brito, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
