Call for Sunshine Week: "Just Give Us The Earmark Data"

Monday, March 15, 2010 2:21 PM

Jerry, Brito, one of the creators of StimulusWatch.org, and Jim Harper, who runs WashingtonWatch.org and worked on an earmark crowdsourcing project over the summer, have teamed up with Gunnar Hellekson for a new project called EarmarkData.org. The project's message: "Just give us the earmark data!"

It couldn't be more timely, certainly with Sunshine Week, but also with the national conversation over earmarks heating up in light of the House GOP's self-imposed unilateral earmark moratorium for FY 2011 and House Appropriators' partial moratorium, as well as the White House's annoucement to post earmark requests online.

We support a full moratorium on all earmarks (i.e. targeted spending), but even if you don't agree with that notion, you would have to agree that the process is still (although certain improvements have been made) much to opaque.

According to Jerry Brito, EarmarkData.org serves two purposes:

First, it’s a petition that you can sign, asking the president and members of Congress to keep their promise and to give us earmark information in a meaningful data format that is truly transparent. Second, it’s a place for techies to help refine a data standard that Congress and the administration can use. We have a draft schema that we’re happy to give to Congress.

So check out the site, sign the petition, and if you are a techie, get in on the action.

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