www.opensecrets.org Open in urlscan Pro
2606:4700::6812:741e  Public Scan

Form analysis
5 forms found in the DOM

GET https://action.opensecrets.org/a/donate

<form class="Donate-form" action="https://action.opensecrets.org/a/donate" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="get">
  <input type="hidden" name="utm_campaign" value="donate_side_red_button">
  <input type="hidden" name="utm_medium" value="footer">
  <input type="hidden" name="utm_source" value="/action-center/be-informed">
  <ul class="Donate-amounts u-clearfix u-mb2">
    <li class="Donate-item">
      <input class="Donate-input" type="radio" id="footer-amount-35" name="amount-footer" value="35" checked="">
      <label class="Donate-label" for="footer-amount-35">$35</label>
    </li>
    <li class="Donate-item">
      <input class="Donate-input" type="radio" id="footer-amount-50" name="amount-footer" value="50">
      <label class="Donate-label" for="footer-amount-50">$50</label>
    </li>
    <li class="Donate-item">
      <input class="Donate-input" type="radio" id="footer-amount-100" name="amount-footer" value="100">
      <label class="Donate-label" for="footer-amount-100">$100</label>
    </li>
    <li class="Donate-item">
      <input class="Donate-input" type="radio" id="footer-amount-other" name="amount-footer" value="other">
      <label class="Donate-label" for="footer-amount-other">Other</label>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <button class="Donate-submit Button">Donate Today</button>
</form>

---

GET /search

<form class="Header2-search" role="search" action="/search" method="GET">
  <label for="site-query" class="u-screenreader">Search</label>
  <div class="Header2-search-queryWrapper">
    <input id="site-query" class="Header2-search-query" type="text" name="q" placeholder="Search">
    <button type="submit" class="Header2-search-submit">
      <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 15 16" fill="none" focusable="false" height="12" width="12" preserveAspectRatio="xMidYMid meet" role="presentation" aria-hidden="true">
        <path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M11 6A5 5 0 1 1 1 6a5 5 0 0 1 10 0Zm-1.523 4.89a6 6 0 1 1 .766-.648L15 15l-.707.707-4.816-4.816Z" fill="#000"></path>
      </svg>
      <div class="u-screenreader">Go</div>
    </button>
  </div>
</form>

---

GET /search

<form class="SearchBox-form" action="/search" method="get">
  <div class="SearchBox-group">
    <input class="SearchBox-input" id="SearchBox-input-header-sticky" name="q" type="search" placeholder="Search" value="" aria-label="Site search">
    <button class="SearchBox-submit" id="SearchBox-submit-header-sticky" type="submit" aria-label="Search">
      <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 15 16" fill="none" focusable="false" class="SearchBox-submit-icon" height="17" width="17" preserveAspectRatio="xMidYMid meet" role="presentation" aria-hidden="true">
        <path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M11 6A5 5 0 1 1 1 6a5 5 0 0 1 10 0Zm-1.523 4.89a6 6 0 1 1 .766-.648L15 15l-.707.707-4.816-4.816Z" fill="#000"></path>
      </svg>
    </button>
  </div>
</form>

---

GET https://action.opensecrets.org/a/donate

<form class="Donate-form" action="https://action.opensecrets.org/a/donate" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="get">
  <input type="hidden" name="utm_campaign" value="donate">
  <input type="hidden" name="utm_medium" value="footer">
  <input type="hidden" name="utm_source" value="/action-center/be-informed">
  <ul class="Donate-amounts u-clearfix u-mb2">
    <li class="Donate-item">
      <input class="Donate-input" type="radio" id="footer-amount-35" name="amount-footer" value="35" checked="">
      <label class="Donate-label" for="footer-amount-35">$35</label>
    </li>
    <li class="Donate-item">
      <input class="Donate-input" type="radio" id="footer-amount-50" name="amount-footer" value="50">
      <label class="Donate-label" for="footer-amount-50">$50</label>
    </li>
    <li class="Donate-item">
      <input class="Donate-input" type="radio" id="footer-amount-100" name="amount-footer" value="100">
      <label class="Donate-label" for="footer-amount-100">$100</label>
    </li>
    <li class="Donate-item">
      <input class="Donate-input" type="radio" id="footer-amount-other" name="amount-footer" value="other">
      <label class="Donate-label" for="footer-amount-other">Other</label>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <button class="Donate-submit Button">Donate Today</button>
</form>

---

Name: mc-embedded-subscribe-form-footer —

<form data-remote="true" data-mailchimp-form="true" class="MailChimp-form u-form js-validate " id="mc-embedded-subscribe-form-footer" name="mc-embedded-subscribe-form-footer" novalidate="">
  <div class="MailChimp-inputWrap">
    <label for="mce-EMAIL-footer" class="MailChimp-label u-vh" aria-label="Your email address (required)">
      <span class="MailChimp-error is-hidden" style="" data-validate="error" data-validate-error-for="mce-EMAIL-footer" role="alert">Please enter a valid email address</span>
    </label>
    <input class="MailChimp-input required email" type="email" value="" name="email" id="mce-EMAIL-footer" placeholder="Email address" autocomplete="home email" data-validate="email" aria-required="true" data-mailchimp-input="true">
  </div>
  <div style="position: absolute; left: -5000px;">
    <label for="mc-honeypot-footer">Do not fill this out if you are a person</label>
    <input id="mc-honeypot-footer" type="text" name="bdonation" tabindex="-1" value="">
  </div>
  <button class="MailChimp-submit Button" name="subscribe" id="mc-embedded-subscribe-footer" data-validate="submit" data-mailchimp-submit="true" style=";"> Sign Up </button>
</form>

---

Text Content

Donate


WE FOLLOW THE MONEY. YOU MAKE IT POSSIBLE.

 * $35
 * $50
 * $100
 * Other

Donate Today
×
 * Skip to Navigation
 * Skip to Main Content
 * Skip to Footer

OpenSecrets Launches New State and Federal Lobbying Tool Read the press release
 ›


WOULD YOU MISS US?

As a 501c3 nonprofit, we need your support to operate. If every visitor to our
site donated just $1 annually, we would never worry about funding again. Can you
help us in 2024?

Donate Now

Open Secrets following the money in politics Menu
Act Now Donate
 * Candidates & Officeholders
    * Candidates & Officeholders Overview
    * Members of Congress
    * Congressional Committees
    * Presidential Administrations
    * Personal Finances
    * Get Local!

 * Elections & Fundraising Data
    * Elections Overview
    * Presidential Elections
    * Congressional Elections
    * Joint Fundraising Committees
    * Political Parties
    * Ballot Measures
    * Fundraising by Gender and Race
    * Expenditures
    * Outside Spending
    * Donor Lookup

 * Industries & Interest Groups
    * Political Ads
    * Dark Money
    * Industries
    * Organizations
    * 527s
    * PACs
    * Issue Profiles

 * Lobbying
    * Lobbying Overview
    * Foreign Lobby Watch
    * Revolving Door

 * About
 * News and Reports
 * Research Tools

Search
Go
Close
Donate Email
 1. Home
 2. Act Now
 3. Be Informed


BE INFORMED

 * Share on Twitter
 * Share on Facebook

Sections
 1. Be Informed 
 2. Take Action 



While not every issue necessitates immediate action, there are certain issues
that we firmly believe Americans should understand. Sign up for our newsletter
and learn more below.


CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER AND OPENSECRETS SUE THE FEC FOR DELAYED RESPONSE TO
TRANSPARENCY RULEMAKING PETITION

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and OpenSecrets filed a lawsuit against the Federal
Election Commission (FEC) for failing to respond to a 2019 petition filed
jointly by both organizations requesting that the agency create new disclosure
rules for “special-purpose” accounts maintained by national political party
committees.

“The 2024 elections are around the corner, but the FEC continues to drag its
feet on creating long-overdue disclosure rules,” said Sheila Krumholz, Executive
Director of OpenSecrets. “OpenSecrets is proud to join Campaign Legal Center in
calling on the FEC to finally ensure that voters have the information they need
to understand who’s paying for our elections and to consider why. We are
committed to shining a light on money in politics, and this lawsuit underscores
the necessity of a transparent campaign finance system to do so. Without the
FEC’s action, the American people are left in the dark about the true sources of
funding behind political party committees.”

Read the full complaint here.




BUNDLER TRANSPARENCY

OpenSecrets joins over a dozen organizations from across the political spectrum
to urge the campaigns of President Joe Biden and Republican presidential
hopefuls to publicly report information about their top campaign fundraisers —
often referred to as “bundlers” — on a regular basis ahead of the 2024
presidential election.

“Government accountability depends on transparency in our campaign finance
system, and that includes transparency about presidential campaign bundlers.
Bundlers frequently raise vast sums of money for candidates, often hundreds of
thousands, if not millions, of dollars, which may help them ingratiate
themselves — and curry favor — with those candidates. Under both Democratic and
Republican administrations, campaign bundlers have received plum postings, such
as ambassadorships and positions on commissions,” the letter states.

Read the full letter here.




SUBVENDOR DISCLOSURE

OpenSecrets issued a comment to the FEC for use during its consideration of a
rulemaking proceeding based on the Petition for Rulemaking submitted by the
Campaign Legal Center and the Center on Science and Technology Policy at Duke
University. Federal campaign finance law requires political groups to disclose
spending to the FEC but imposes few restrictions on merely disclosing payments
to opaque firms or shell companies that channel money to ultimate vendors whose
identities remain hidden. Requiring disclosure of sub-vendors would equip voters
with the tools necessary to identify which digital platforms have advertising
sponsored by political committees while giving political committees and their
donors greater insight into what they are paying for.

You can read the full comment here.




AMICUS BRIEFS FILED IN SUPREME COURT SUPPORTING DONOR DISCLOSURE

Seven states have recently passed bills restricting the disclosure of donors to
politically active nonprofits, with four more considering similar measures. In
California, eleven scholars of nonprofit law recently filed amicus briefs with
the Supreme Court, advocating that the government must continue to ensure that
"assets donated for charitable purposes are in fact used for those purposes."
They argue that, "The First Amendment protects the nonprofit sector from
unreasonable governmental intrusions, but it does not give nonprofit
organizations an invisibility shield."

Another amicus brief in the California case was filed by U.S. Senators led by
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, using OpenSecrets' research to highlight how lack of
nonprofit donor disclosure has allowed special interests to "exert political
influence under the cloak of anonymity."

Read the briefs here.


REQUEST FOR SWIFT PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP TO MAKE TRANSPARENCY A TOP PRIORITY
FOR THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION

On February 22, 2020, OpenSecrets joined with a coalition of advocates (led by
the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institute at
Columbia University) to urge President Biden to make transparency and openness a
higher priority and to reverse the deterioration in public access to government
that occurred under former President Donald Trump.

Read the letter in its entirety here.


TRANSPARENCY FOR WHITE HOUSE VISITORS

On Friday, February 12, 2021, the Center for Responsive Politics joined a
coalition of organizations in signing onto a letter urging the Biden
administration to make visitor logs for all White House visits public. Doing so
would allow the public to be better informed about the forces influencing White
House policy and who has the president’s ear.

It is our firm belief that all visitor logs — whether for in-person visits or
the virtual meetings that have replaced them during the pandemic — should be
made available online in a searchable, sortable, downloadable database that
includes the name and affiliation of each visitor, the date of the visit, the
name of the person being visited, and a general description of the reason for
the visit.

See the letter here.


COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS SHOULD BE OPEN AND TRANSPARENT

On Tuesday June 9th, 2020, the Center for Responsive Politics joined a coalition
of groups from across the political spectrum to sign onto a letter to Sen. Jim
Risch (R-Idaho), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, to express our
concern about his recent decision to ignore rules calling for access via
livestream video of a controversial nominee’s confirmation vote and debate on
more than a dozen bills and appropriate notice of the proceedings. Sen. Risch’s
decision contravened best practices recommendations during the coronavirus
pandemic issued by the Senate Rules Committee.

CRP stands with these other groups in insisting that all Senate committee
proceedings should be livestreamed so the public and press can watch what
happens as it happens.

"The Foreign Relations Committee should pledge that all public proceedings will
include contemporaneous video broadcasts and appropriate notice of the
proceedings. We believe it is incumbent on all committees to provide a video
livestream of their proceedings, unless they properly vote to close the
proceedings, at least so long as the Senate is closed to the public and press
access is limited."

You can read the full letter here.


CONGRESS SHOULD STRENGTHEN AND CLARIFY CORONAVIRUS-RELATED DATA DISCLOSURES

On Thursday June 18th, 2020, the Center for Responsive Politics joined with a
coalition of 26 groups to send a letter to Congressional leadership, arguing for
“vigorous independent oversight” to ensure that federal agencies are effectively
deploying their resources to reinforce public health infrastructure during the
coronavirus pandemic.

The letter also states that the public and Congress "need to know whether the
companies that receive federal relief are maintaining their workforce, providing
health care coverage, paid sick days and paid family leave, and are not
siphoning off the funds to reward executives or shareholders through stock
buybacks or dividend payments, as well as other data necessary to evaluate
whether taxpayer money is being spent effectively and equitably."

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, CRP stands with our fellow transparency
groups to make sure that federal agencies are held to the highest level of
scrutiny.

You can read the full letter here.


THE PERIODICALLY LISTING UPDATES TO MANAGEMENT ACT OF 2020 (THE PLUM ACT)

On June 4th, 2020, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Committee on
Oversight and Reform, Committee Member John P. Sarbanes, Rep. Gerry Connolly,
Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, and Senator Tom Carper
introduced the Periodically Listing Updates to Management Act of 2020 (The PLUM
Act) to increase the transparency of the most senior leaders of the Executive
Branch.

Currently, a comprehensive list of positions appointed by the President is
available only once every four years in a publication referred to as the Plum
Book. The PLUM Act would modernize the Plum Book by requiring the Office of
Personnel Management to establish and maintain a current, publicly available
directory of senior government leaders online.

"The PLUM Act is essential to increasing government transparency," the Members
said. "The American people deserve to know who is making the decisions that
affect their everyday lives as they happen — not every four years. Government
transparency should be a bipartisan concern, and we encourage all of our
colleagues to support this crucial legislation."

Read more about the act here. Read the act itself here.


DISCLOSURE OF PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN BUNDLERS

On April 11th, 2019, the Center for Responsive Politics joined with 15 other
transparency-focused organizations to call on 2020 presidential candidates to
release information on their campaign bundlers.

By law, individual donors are prohibited from contributing more than $5,600 to a
single presidential candidate’s campaign ($2,800 for the primary election and
$2,800 for the general election). At the same time, many individuals solicit
contributions on behalf of candidates from their networks of friends, social
contacts, and business associates. Individuals who take on this fundraising
mantle are widely known as bundlers because they are credited for the “bundles”
of money they help a campaign raise. With presidential fundraising goals of
hundreds of millions of dollars, bundlers play a highly valued role and are
often rewarded with presidential appointments and other plum perks.

By disclosing information on bundlers, presidential candidates would make it
easier for the public and the press to identify these important individuals who
are raising large sums of money for campaigns.

See the letter here. See the organizations involved here.


IMPROVING LOBBYIST TRACKING DATA

On April 17th, 2018, Center for Responsive Politics Executive Director Sheila
Krumholz testified before the House Committee on Appropriations Legislative
Branch Subcommittee to discuss ways to improve lobbyist tracking data.
Specifically, she brought up the way the quality of information on federal
lobbying is undermined by the lack of a key ingredient: a publicly available
unique identifier to connect all of the name variations for each individual
lobbyist. Read her testimony here.


SUPPORT TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY BY PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURAL COMMITTEES

In February, the Center for Responsive Politics, along with a coalition of other
transparency-focused groups signed onto a letter supporting legislation
introduced by U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) in the U.S. House of
Representatives that would require that presidential inaugural committees tell
the public how donations are used and where leftover money is sent. Read the
letter here.


MAKING CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE INFORMATION MORE BROADLY AVAILABLE TO THE
GENERAL PUBLIC.

The Center for Responsive Politics has teamed up with a coalition of other
transparency-focused groups to send a letter to the Congressional Budget Office
making recommendations to make the CBO's information more readily accessible.
Read the letter here.


WHITE HOUSE ETHICS WAIVERS

After the Trump administration seemed to indicate it would not be releasing
ethics waivers given to White House staff members, it reversed course and
released the waivers on May 31. However, many of the documents were undated and
lacking signatures, and even the completed forms seem to contradict the
president's pledge to "Drain the Swamp." Read more here.


SCOTUS UPHOLDS SOFT MONEY RESTRICTIONS

On May 22nd, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United states affirmed a three-judge
district court's ruling in Republican Party of Louisiana v. FEC, essentially
rejecting a constitutional challenge to the federal “soft money” restrictions on
contributions to state parties. The challenge by the Republican Party of
Louisiana sought to undo limits to "soft money" donations to state and local
party committees engaged in federal election activity. This was not the first
time that SCOTUS has affirmed a soft money ban.


TRANSPARENCY FOR WHITE HOUSE VISITORS LOG

A coalition of government watchdog groups has announced plans to sue the Trump
administration with the aim of compelling the White House to continue President
Barack Obama’s practice of releasing logs of lobbyists and others who visit the
complex.


DRAIN THE SWAMP

President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to "drain the swamp" - this page
tracks the efforts of President Trump and other politicians in pursuit of that
goal.

"How Trump could really 'drain the swamp'" by Center for Responsive Politics
Executive Director Sheila Krumholz.

Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) introduced a bill on March 2nd, 2017 referred to
as "A bill to establish a 5-year ban on individuals appointed to Executive
Schedule positions and Members of Congress engaging in lobbying activities at
the Federal level."


STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

The Center for Responsive Politics joined with a number of organizations to take
a stand for the 1st Amendment and the freedom of the press.


WE FOLLOW THE MONEY. YOU MAKE IT POSSIBLE.

 * $35
 * $50
 * $100
 * Other

Donate Today


COUNT CASH & MAKE CHANGE

Sign up for our newsletter to track money’s influence on U.S. elections and
public policy.

Please enter a valid email address
Do not fill this out if you are a person
Sign Up


OpenSecrets Following the money in politics

A 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization

1100 13th Street, NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005

(202) 857-0044

info@opensecrets.org

Privacy Policy

 * Take Action 
 * Donate 
 * Buy Custom Data 
 * Created with Fabric.js 5.2.4 Follow us on X Follow us on Facebook Follow us
   on Instagram Follow us on Threads

Except for the Revolving Door section, content on this site is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
by OpenSecrets.org. To request permission for commercial use, please contact us.