House Expenditures Expected to Go Online Today
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Daniel Schuman
Nov 30, 2009, 9:44:31 AM11/30/09
to openhous...@googlegroups.com
http://bit.ly/4pcRCU
House Expenditures to go Online
The US House is expected today to release the quarterly Statement of Disbursements online for the first time.
Sunlight has long called for electronic disclosure of the accounts of Members and other offices within the House, and last June Speaker Pelosi announced this new policy. The US Senate quickly followed, announcing a new policy set to take effect in 2011.
We expect today to be the first time the public will be able to see
how their representatives spend their office budgets online, adding a
new layer of accountability and trust to the process of
representation. Read more
Daniel Schuman
Policy Counsel | Sunlight Foundation
Twitter: danielschuman | 202-713-5795
John Wonderlich
Nov 30, 2009, 10:36:06 AM11/30/09
to openhous...@googlegroups.com
the site is now up:
http://disbursements.house.gov/
and it says the information will go up around 1 pm:
http://disbursements.house.gov/
and it says the information will go up around 1 pm:
The Statement of Disbursements for July 1–September 30, 2009, is scheduled to be published online after 1 PM EST on November 30, 2009.
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John Wonderlich
Nov 30, 2009, 1:11:04 PM11/30/09
to openhous...@googlegroups.com
And the pdfs are now up
(iphone)
On Monday, November 30, 2009, John Wonderlich <johnwon...@gmail.com> wrote:
> the site is now up:
>
> http://disbursements.house.gov/
>
> and it says the information will go up around 1 pm:
>
> The Statement of Disbursements for July 1–September 30, 2009, is
> scheduled to be published online after 1 PM EST on November 30, 2009.
>
> On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 9:44 AM, Daniel Schuman <dsch...@sunlightfoundation.com> wrote:
>
> http://bit.ly/4pcRCU
> House Expenditures to go Online <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/30/house-expenditures-to-go-online/>
>
>
>
>
>
> By John Wonderlich <http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/people/jwonderlich>
> on 11/30/09 @ 9:33 am <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/30/house-expenditures-to-go-online/>
> | 0 Comments <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/30/house-expenditures-to-go-online/#comments>
>
>
>
>
> Tags: Expenditures <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/expenditures/>, mras <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/mras/>, Pelosi <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/Pelosi/>, quarterly statements of expenditures <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/quarterly-statements-of-expenditures/>
(iphone)
On Monday, November 30, 2009, John Wonderlich <johnwon...@gmail.com> wrote:
> the site is now up:
>
> http://disbursements.house.gov/
>
> and it says the information will go up around 1 pm:
>
> The Statement of Disbursements for July 1–September 30, 2009, is
> scheduled to be published online after 1 PM EST on November 30, 2009.
>
> On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 9:44 AM, Daniel Schuman <dsch...@sunlightfoundation.com> wrote:
>
> http://bit.ly/4pcRCU
>
>
>
>
>
> By John Wonderlich <http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/people/jwonderlich>
> on 11/30/09 @ 9:33 am <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/30/house-expenditures-to-go-online/>
> | 0 Comments <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/30/house-expenditures-to-go-online/#comments>
>
>
>
>
> Tags: Expenditures <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/expenditures/>, mras <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/mras/>, Pelosi <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/Pelosi/>, quarterly statements of expenditures <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/quarterly-statements-of-expenditures/>
>
>
>
> The US House is expected today to release the quarterly Statement of Disbursements online for the first time.
> Sunlight has long <http://publicmarkup.org/bill/transparency-government-act-2008-revised/1/107/> called <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2008/12/05/memo-to-congress-open-your-books/> for <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/05/27/congressional-statements-of-expenditures-the-mp-expense-scandal-and-the-case-for-transparency/> electronic disclosure of the accounts of Members and other offices within the House, and last June Speaker Pelosi <http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=1814> announced <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/06/03/speaker-pelosi-announces-new-expense-disclosure-policy/> this new policy. The US Senate quickly followed <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/07/07/success-senate-to-post-expenditure-reports/>, announcing a new policy set to take effect in 2011.
>
>
> The US House is expected today to release the quarterly Statement of Disbursements online for the first time.
>
>
>
> We expect today to be the first time the public will be able to see
> how their representatives spend their office budgets online, adding a
> new layer of accountability and trust to the process of
> representation. Read more <http://bit.ly/4pcRCU>
>
>
> We expect today to be the first time the public will be able to see
> how their representatives spend their office budgets online, adding a
> new layer of accountability and trust to the process of
atomiota
Nov 30, 2009, 8:56:27 PM11/30/09
to Open House Project
304 hits on "UPS"
and only 104 hits on "USPS"
tsk tsk...
;-)
this is very cool - i am auditing a few members as we speak....for IT
expenditures....
and only 104 hits on "USPS"
tsk tsk...
;-)
this is very cool - i am auditing a few members as we speak....for IT
expenditures....
Josh Tauberer
Dec 1, 2009, 11:48:04 AM12/1/09
to openhous...@googlegroups.com
(http://razor.occams.info/blog/2009/12/01/congressional-disbursements/)
This is a really great case study in how to do transparency. There are a
lot of wins here and several points to learn from.
The best thing I see so far is the documentation provided on
disbursements.house.gov. There is a nice explanation of the reporting
process, a FAQ, and a glossary. There is also a table of transaction
codes found in the document, and these all are crucial for anyone
reading or analyzing the information. This is one of the best examples
of documentation I've seen for government data of this kind.
Here's an evaluation of the disclosure based on standards I've drawn
from others and outlined here:
http://razor.occams.info/pubdocs/opendataciviccapital.html
In summary, many of the goals are met. The important ones not met are
machine processability, public input, and public review. Machine
processability is a very important one and the fact that this goal was
not met seriously undermines much of the reason for publishing the
information in the first place.
Information is not meaningfully public if it is not available on the
Internet for free.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED.
Data Should Be Primary. Primary data is data as collected at the source,
with the finest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or
modified forms.
We can evaluate this because the documentation actually describes
how the House Clerk receives the information. It talks about some
degree of aggregation taking place, such as a $10,000 travel
record not necessarily being for one trip. But by and large we're
seeing the level of detail that I think is expected.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED
Timely.
The SOD is published quarterly, and hopefully this will include
the online/electronic version going forward. I don't think we
can have too much higher of an expectation here. Ten years from
now perhaps I would like to see real-time expense reporting, but
not today.
-- TO BE SEEN (if the electronic version is published
as often as the print version in the future)
Accessible. Data are available to the widest range of users for the
widest range of purposes.
This goal from the "8 Principles" refers to:
Data Format: PDF is an open standard, and therefore a good choice
among the data formats for the purpose of publishing a document.
(See more below.)
Bulk Data: The 3,400-page document is provided in a single PDF
file, rather than hundreds or thousands of separate downloads.
This satisfies the goal of bulk data.
Documentation: Documentation is excellent. There is an explanation
of the reporting process, a FAQ, a table of codes, and a glossary.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED
Machine processable: Data are reasonably structured to allow automated
processing.
This is the first goal which is not addressed at all by the data
release. While PDF is good for documents, it is bad for tabular
information. It does not support sorting, transforming, or other
analysis, and it only marginally supports search. A spreadsheet
format of any sort would be useful here, some formats better than
others.
Considering the size of this data set, without the help of computers
to process this information it is far less useful than it could be.
To be given a barely-searchable 3,000-page file is only a small
step up from being mailed several reams of paper.
Furthermore, there is no indication on the disbursements website
that this will be considered in the future.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Non-discriminatory: Data are available to anyone, with no requirement of
registration.
Non-proprietary: Data are available in a format over which no entity has
exclusive control.
License-free. Dissemination of the data is not limited by intellectual
property law or other terms.
-- GOALS ACHIEVED
Promote analysis: Data published by the government should be in formats
and approaches that promote analysis and reuse of that data.
This goal (and the next two) comes from the Association of Computing
Machinery's Recommendation on Open Government and is similar to the
Machine Processable goal above. So, see above.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Safe file formats: Government bodies publishing data online should
always seek to publish using data formats that do not include executable
content.
PDF is, relatively speaking, a safe file format.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED
Provenance and trust: Published content should be digitally signed or
include attestation of publication/creation date, authenticity, and
integrity.
According to the disbursements website, the files are digitally
signed. I haven't verified that the signature process was done
correctly.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED
Public input: The public is in the best position to determine what
information technologies will be best suited for the applications the
public intends to create for itself.
I am sure members of our community have been in touch with the
Clerk's office. However, there was no public discussion on how
these files ought to have been made available, and therefore
I am going to not count this goal as having been met.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Public review: There should be a means for the public to interact with
the data publisher during and after the data has been made. The public
may have questions or may find errors. The process of creating the data
should also be transparent.
This is a goal rarely given any attention. The documentation
gives significant insight into this process. But there is no
contact person for this data set that is made known to the public.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Interagency coordination: Interoperability makes data more valuable by
making it easier to derive new uses from combinations of data. To the
extent two data sets refer to the same kinds of things, the creators of
the data sets should strive to make them interoperable.
There is a potential to link the names of Members of Congress to
their ID numbers provided in, say, the XML voting records.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Permanent Web Address: The file should have a stable location.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED (provided it is kept there)
Globally Unique Identifiers: This concept, important on the world wide
web, is that any document, resource, data record, or entity mentioned in
a database, or some might say every paragraph in a document, should have
a unique identification that others can use to point to or cite it
elsewhere.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Linked Open Data: This is a method for publishing databases in a
standard format for interconnectivity with other databases without the
expense of wide agreement on unified inter-agency or global data standards.
-- GOAL NOT MET
- Josh Tauberer
- CivicImpulse / GovTrack.us
http://razor.occams.info | www.govtrack.us | civicimpulse.com
"Members of both sides are reminded not to use guests of the
House as props."
On 11/30/2009 10:36 AM, John Wonderlich wrote:
> the site is now up:
>
> http://disbursements.house.gov/
>
> and it says the information will go up around 1 pm:
>
> The Statement of Disbursements for July 1�September 30, 2009, is
> 9:33 am
> <mailto:openhouseproject%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.
This is a really great case study in how to do transparency. There are a
lot of wins here and several points to learn from.
The best thing I see so far is the documentation provided on
disbursements.house.gov. There is a nice explanation of the reporting
process, a FAQ, and a glossary. There is also a table of transaction
codes found in the document, and these all are crucial for anyone
reading or analyzing the information. This is one of the best examples
of documentation I've seen for government data of this kind.
Here's an evaluation of the disclosure based on standards I've drawn
from others and outlined here:
http://razor.occams.info/pubdocs/opendataciviccapital.html
In summary, many of the goals are met. The important ones not met are
machine processability, public input, and public review. Machine
processability is a very important one and the fact that this goal was
not met seriously undermines much of the reason for publishing the
information in the first place.
Information is not meaningfully public if it is not available on the
Internet for free.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED.
Data Should Be Primary. Primary data is data as collected at the source,
with the finest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or
modified forms.
We can evaluate this because the documentation actually describes
how the House Clerk receives the information. It talks about some
degree of aggregation taking place, such as a $10,000 travel
record not necessarily being for one trip. But by and large we're
seeing the level of detail that I think is expected.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED
Timely.
The SOD is published quarterly, and hopefully this will include
the online/electronic version going forward. I don't think we
can have too much higher of an expectation here. Ten years from
now perhaps I would like to see real-time expense reporting, but
not today.
-- TO BE SEEN (if the electronic version is published
as often as the print version in the future)
Accessible. Data are available to the widest range of users for the
widest range of purposes.
This goal from the "8 Principles" refers to:
Data Format: PDF is an open standard, and therefore a good choice
among the data formats for the purpose of publishing a document.
(See more below.)
Bulk Data: The 3,400-page document is provided in a single PDF
file, rather than hundreds or thousands of separate downloads.
This satisfies the goal of bulk data.
Documentation: Documentation is excellent. There is an explanation
of the reporting process, a FAQ, a table of codes, and a glossary.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED
Machine processable: Data are reasonably structured to allow automated
processing.
This is the first goal which is not addressed at all by the data
release. While PDF is good for documents, it is bad for tabular
information. It does not support sorting, transforming, or other
analysis, and it only marginally supports search. A spreadsheet
format of any sort would be useful here, some formats better than
others.
Considering the size of this data set, without the help of computers
to process this information it is far less useful than it could be.
To be given a barely-searchable 3,000-page file is only a small
step up from being mailed several reams of paper.
Furthermore, there is no indication on the disbursements website
that this will be considered in the future.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Non-discriminatory: Data are available to anyone, with no requirement of
registration.
Non-proprietary: Data are available in a format over which no entity has
exclusive control.
License-free. Dissemination of the data is not limited by intellectual
property law or other terms.
-- GOALS ACHIEVED
Promote analysis: Data published by the government should be in formats
and approaches that promote analysis and reuse of that data.
This goal (and the next two) comes from the Association of Computing
Machinery's Recommendation on Open Government and is similar to the
Machine Processable goal above. So, see above.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Safe file formats: Government bodies publishing data online should
always seek to publish using data formats that do not include executable
content.
PDF is, relatively speaking, a safe file format.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED
Provenance and trust: Published content should be digitally signed or
include attestation of publication/creation date, authenticity, and
integrity.
According to the disbursements website, the files are digitally
signed. I haven't verified that the signature process was done
correctly.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED
Public input: The public is in the best position to determine what
information technologies will be best suited for the applications the
public intends to create for itself.
I am sure members of our community have been in touch with the
Clerk's office. However, there was no public discussion on how
these files ought to have been made available, and therefore
I am going to not count this goal as having been met.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Public review: There should be a means for the public to interact with
the data publisher during and after the data has been made. The public
may have questions or may find errors. The process of creating the data
should also be transparent.
This is a goal rarely given any attention. The documentation
gives significant insight into this process. But there is no
contact person for this data set that is made known to the public.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Interagency coordination: Interoperability makes data more valuable by
making it easier to derive new uses from combinations of data. To the
extent two data sets refer to the same kinds of things, the creators of
the data sets should strive to make them interoperable.
There is a potential to link the names of Members of Congress to
their ID numbers provided in, say, the XML voting records.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Permanent Web Address: The file should have a stable location.
-- GOAL ACHIEVED (provided it is kept there)
Globally Unique Identifiers: This concept, important on the world wide
web, is that any document, resource, data record, or entity mentioned in
a database, or some might say every paragraph in a document, should have
a unique identification that others can use to point to or cite it
elsewhere.
-- GOAL NOT MET
Linked Open Data: This is a method for publishing databases in a
standard format for interconnectivity with other databases without the
expense of wide agreement on unified inter-agency or global data standards.
-- GOAL NOT MET
- Josh Tauberer
- CivicImpulse / GovTrack.us
http://razor.occams.info | www.govtrack.us | civicimpulse.com
"Members of both sides are reminded not to use guests of the
House as props."
On 11/30/2009 10:36 AM, John Wonderlich wrote:
> the site is now up:
>
> http://disbursements.house.gov/
>
> and it says the information will go up around 1 pm:
>
> scheduled to be published online after 1 PM EST on November 30, 2009.
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 9:44 AM, Daniel Schuman
> <dsch...@sunlightfoundation.com
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 9:44 AM, Daniel Schuman
> <dsch...@sunlightfoundation.com
> <mailto:dsch...@sunlightfoundation.com>> wrote:
>
>
> http://bit.ly/4pcRCU
>
>
> House Expenditures to go Online
>
>
> http://bit.ly/4pcRCU
>
>
> House Expenditures to go Online
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/30/house-expenditures-to-go-online/>
>
> By John Wonderlich
> <http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/people/jwonderlich> on 11/30/09 @
>
> By John Wonderlich
> 9:33 am
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/30/house-expenditures-to-go-online/>
> | 0 Comments
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/30/house-expenditures-to-go-online/#comments>
>
> Tags: Expenditures
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/expenditures/>,
> mras <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/mras/>,
> Pelosi <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/Pelosi/>,
> quarterly statements of expenditures
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/quarterly-statements-of-expenditures/>
>
>
> | 0 Comments
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/30/house-expenditures-to-go-online/#comments>
>
> Tags: Expenditures
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/expenditures/>,
> mras <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/mras/>,
> Pelosi <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/Pelosi/>,
> quarterly statements of expenditures
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/quarterly-statements-of-expenditures/>
>
>
> The US House is expected today to release the quarterly Statement of
> Disbursements online for the first time.
>
> Sunlight has long
> Disbursements online for the first time.
>
> Sunlight has long
> <http://publicmarkup.org/bill/transparency-government-act-2008-revised/1/107/>
> called
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2008/12/05/memo-to-congress-open-your-books/>
> for
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/05/27/congressional-statements-of-expenditures-the-mp-expense-scandal-and-the-case-for-transparency/>
> called
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2008/12/05/memo-to-congress-open-your-books/>
> for
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/05/27/congressional-statements-of-expenditures-the-mp-expense-scandal-and-the-case-for-transparency/>
> electronic disclosure of the accounts of Members and other offices
> within the House, and last June Speaker Pelosi
> within the House, and last June Speaker Pelosi
> <http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=1814> announced
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/06/03/speaker-pelosi-announces-new-expense-disclosure-policy/>
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/06/03/speaker-pelosi-announces-new-expense-disclosure-policy/>
> this new policy. The US Senate quickly followed
> <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/07/07/success-senate-to-post-expenditure-reports/>,
> announcing a new policy set to take effect in 2011.
>
> We expect today to be the first time the public will be able to see
> how their representatives spend their office budgets online, adding
> a new layer of accountability and trust to the process of
> representation. Read more <http://bit.ly/4pcRCU>
>
> We expect today to be the first time the public will be able to see
> how their representatives spend their office budgets online, adding
> a new layer of accountability and trust to the process of
>
>
> Daniel Schuman
> Policy Counsel | Sunlight Foundation
> Twitter: danielschuman | 202-713-5795
>
> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Open House Project" group.
> To post to this group, send email to
> openhous...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:openhous...@googlegroups.com>.
>
> Daniel Schuman
> Policy Counsel | Sunlight Foundation
> Twitter: danielschuman | 202-713-5795
>
> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Open House Project" group.
> To post to this group, send email to
> openhous...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:openhouseproject%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.
Schweickhardt, Reynold (CTO)
Dec 1, 2009, 1:31:09 PM12/1/09
to openhous...@googlegroups.com
In terms of the goal noted below: Provenance and trust: Published content should be digitally signed or
Reynold Schweickhardt
US GPO
________________________________________
From: Josh Tauberer [taub...@govtrack.us]
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 11:48 AM
To: openhous...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [openhouseproject] House Expenditures Expected to Go Online Today
> The Statement of Disbursements for July 1–September 30, 2009, is
include attestation of publication/creation date, authenticity, and
integrity.
The files for the House Statement of Disbursements (SOD) were digitally signed by GPO. You can verify the digital signature (at a minimum) in the Abode PDF reader. This is the same signing process we are using for bills and other Congressional documents.
integrity.
Reynold Schweickhardt
US GPO
________________________________________
From: Josh Tauberer [taub...@govtrack.us]
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 11:48 AM
To: openhous...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [openhouseproject] House Expenditures Expected to Go Online Today
Josh Tauberer
Dec 1, 2009, 4:33:39 PM12/1/09
to openhous...@googlegroups.com
Hi, Reynold. Thanks for adding that (and for that matter, thanks for
supporting the use of digital signatures).
I didn't have any particular reason to think the signatures weren't
there or done right. It was just a little inconvenient for me to check
at the time.
- Josh Tauberer
- CivicImpulse / GovTrack.us
http://razor.occams.info | www.govtrack.us | civicimpulse.com
"Members of both sides are reminded not to use guests of the
House as props."
>> The Statement of Disbursements for July 1�September 30, 2009, is
supporting the use of digital signatures).
I didn't have any particular reason to think the signatures weren't
there or done right. It was just a little inconvenient for me to check
at the time.
- Josh Tauberer
- CivicImpulse / GovTrack.us
http://razor.occams.info | www.govtrack.us | civicimpulse.com
"Members of both sides are reminded not to use guests of the
House as props."
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