"The Sunlight Foundation lauds Senators Coburn (R-OK), Feingold (D-WI), Gillibrand (D-NY) and McCain (R-AZ) in the Senate and Representatives Cassidy (R-LA) and Speier (D-CA) in the House for introducing landmark legislation today that would require Congress to create an online, searchable database for all earmark requests."

New Earmark Transparency Legislation Introduced In House And Senate
Bipartisan Legislation Would Require Online Database of All Earmark Requests

Washington, DC - The Sunlight Foundation lauds Senators Coburn (R-OK), Feingold (D-WI), Gillibrand (D-NY) and McCain (R-AZ) in the Senate and Representatives Cassidy (R-LA) and Speier (D-CA) in the House for introducing landmark legislation today that would require Congress to create an online, searchable database for all earmark requests. Sunlight has long advocated for technological solutions to ensure that earmarks reflect the public interest, and formally proposed an online, searchable database of earmark request disclosures in March of 2008 in its Transparency in Government Act, posted to its PublicMarkup.org website.

"Currently, information on earmarks is scattered across more than 559 websites, making it virtually impossible for even the most seasoned earmark researcher to follow the money, let alone constituents," said Ellen Miller, executive director and co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation. "The Earmark Transparency Act introduced today in the House and Senate solves that problem by unifying all earmark requests in one single database, therefore giving constituents one place to look to learn what their elected representatives are funding. This will empower them to then determine for themselves whether lawmakers are using earmarks to meet pressing needs or reward political supporters."

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