1: Relationships and Trust
Strengthen the relationship between citizens and their elected officials and foster public trust in Congress. Other Information:
We are unique in that technology and the power of the Internet are at the core of every one of our efforts. Our work is committed
to helping citizens, bloggers and journalists be their own best congressional watchdogs, by improving access to existing information
and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and Web sites to enable all of us to collaborate in fostering greater
transparency. Since our founding in the spring of 2006, we have assembled and funded an array of web-based databases and tools
including OpenCongress.org, Congresspedia.org, FedSpending.org, OpenSecrets.org, EarmarkWatch.org and LOUISdb.org. These sites
make millions of bits of information available online about the members of Congress, their staff, legislation, federal spending
and lobbyists. By facilitating the creation of new databases, and the maintenance and expansion of pre-existing ones, along
with the application of technologies that free data from its silos, we have liberated megabytes of important political data
from basements, paper, .pdfs and other non-searchable and non-mashable formats. These efforts, combined with our own distributed
investigative research projects, community-based engagement with Congress to bridge its technological gaps and lobbying to
demand changes in how and what Congress makes publicly available online, have created an unprecedented demand for more: more
information, more transparency and more easy-to-use tools. Underlying all of Sunlight's efforts is a fundamental belief that
increased transparency will improve the conduct of Congress itself and the public's confidence in government.
Objective(s):
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