110th Congress government reform recap

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Well, it was a busy 110th Congress, that is, the Capital from January, 2007 to September, 2008. As the internet grew and became more social, there was increasing collaboration among pubic interest groups within their respective reform fields. Web 2.0, with it's tools of interactivity and visitor participation also gained a hold on some government reform web sites. The most cutting-edge activist organizations now have a presence on YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.

All Things Reform posted on its blog news that had the most direct impact on citizen activists; the blog post numbers below, are from our label tags list. In the larger field of government reform, there were a few very busy public interest groups sending action alerts, including Public Citizen (23 posts), Common Cause (16 posts) and Public Campaign (11 posts). Several others served action alerts as an important part of their respective missions.

During this Congress, All Things Reform focused on all four tiers of political reform, e.g. ethics, campaign finance, fiscal discipline and electoral reform. Each type of reform had a few groups especially active in their own category. For ethics, there were public interest groups such as Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) (14 posts) OpenTheGovernment.org (7 posts), US PIRG (6 posts) and Judicial Watch (4 posts). In campaign finance reform, activity was greatest with Public Campaign in an active field; the Campaign Legal Center (3 posts) fought strongly for reform in the courts. Fiscal discipline groups especially active in the 110th Congress included Citizens Against Government Waste (17 posts), National Taxpayers Union (11 posts), Taxpayers for Common Sense (6 posts) and OMB Watch (2 posts). And last but not least, of the many electoral reform groups listed on All Things Reform, especially active was FairVote (7 posts) and a host of smaller, more narrowly defined electoral groups, including Black Box Voting (3 posts).

Congratulations to everyone involved in political reform these last two years. A special thanks goes to the Sunlight Foundation for bringing together and supporting many government reform groups during this period of growth. On the federal level, we have much to be proud of in having a strong, positive effect on the culture that is Capitol Hill.

The next Congress assumes session in January, 2009 with a new set of Congress members working with a new President. You can rest assured, these reform activists and even more heavy hitters will return more organized and better in touch with the internet community than ever before!


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