American taxpayers spend over $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service, a “think tank” that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events.

VoteSmart.org

http://www.votesmart.org/

Bring the Truth to Light: Get the facts on those who control your future including Bios, voting records, positions on issues, interest group ratings, public statements, campaign finances.

State and Local Government Issues

http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/stategov/stategov.html

Library of Congress site for local issues and links

Sunlight Foundation

http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/

Committed to helping citizens, bloggers and journalists be their own best watchdogs, by improving access to existing information and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and Web sites to enable all of us to collaborate in fostering greater transparency.

Propublica

http://www.propublica.org/

Journalism in the public interest.

Taxpayers for Common Sense

www.taxpayer.net

An independent and non-partisan voice for taxpayers working to increase transparency and expose and eliminate wasteful and corrupt subsidies, earmarks, and corporate welfare.

Complete List

http://www.conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm

The complete list of email addresses and fax numbers for all congress members, senators, committees in Washington DC

This Nation

http://www.thisnation.com/index.html

Dedicated to providing factual, unbiased information about government and politics in the United States of America. Includes library of historic documents and other educational materials about how our government works.

TRAC

http://www.trac.syr.edu/

Comprehensive reseource for DEA, DHS, ICE, IRS, ATF, FBI data. How it spends, where it spends, who benefits, how it enforces what laws, etc. Very complete.

Washington Watch

http://www.washingtonwatch.com

Washingtonwatch.com tracks the bills in Congress, along with estimates about their costs or savings, when available.

Open Congress.org

http://www.opencongress.org/

Everyone can be an insider. Track bills, votes, issues, money trails.

Muckety.com

http://www.muckety.com/

Exploring the paths of power and influence

Votesmart.org

http://www.votesmart.org/

The Voter’s self defense system

Uncle Sam

http://www.lib.memphis.edu/resource/unclesam/whos.html

Who’s Who in the Federal Government

Lobbying Disclosures

http://lobbyingdisclosure.house.gov/

Government site with actual lobbyist disclosures

Senate Lobbyist Database

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/Public_Disclosure/LDA_reports.htm

Senate Query Search Board

http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=selectfields

Who’s lobbying your Senators?

House Lobbyist Database

http://lobbyingdisclosure.house.gov/

Who’s lobbying your representatives?

Legistorm.com

http://www.legistorm.com/

LegiStorm helps bring transparency to the U.S. Congress by disseminating public docu- ments and non-partisan infor- mation over the web.

American Voice

http://www.americanvoice.com/

Fax your reps for free over the internet.

Investigating Obama

http://investigatingobama.blogspot.com/

Investigating many aspects of this administration

Open Secrets.org

http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php

Nonpartisan guide to money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy. Whether you’re a voter, journalist, activist, student or interested citizen, use our free site to shine light on your government. Count cash and make change.

NNDB Mapper: Tracking the Entire World

http://mapper.nndb.com/

The NNDB Mapper allows you to explore NNDB visually by graphing the connections between people. Over 34,000 individuals are listed in our network

Discover the Networks.org

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/funderprofile.asp?fndid=5341&category=79

The Guide to the Political Left

Maplight.org

http://maplight.org/map/us

Money and Politics: Illuminating the Connection

USA Spending.org

http://www.usaspending.gov/

A journey toward greater transparency and accountability

Federal Audit Clearinghouse

http://harvester.census.gov/fac/dissem/disclaim.html

GOVERNMENTWIDE AUDIT DATABASE

Guidestar.org

http://www2.guidestar.org/

Analyze Nonprofit Data

You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/

Invaluable for catching people in lies

ACORN CRACKED

http://acorncracked.com/

Revealing the nuts and worms of ACORN

Federal Register

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/advanced.html

What’s going on in DC? Find out here. Regulatory Documents, Sunshine Act Meetings, Presidential Documents

ACTIVIST CASH

http://www.activistcash.com/index.cfm

This site is AWESOME! Tons and tons of info on Groups, Foundations, Celebreties and Key Players. You just have to check this out.

UNDUE INFLUENCE

http://www.undueinfluence.com/

The GREEN Tracking Library- Green Groups, Foundations, Bureaucrats, Labor Unions, Media and Players

VRRESEARCH

http://www.vrresearch.com/blog/

Forum on working with public records, analyzing the data. This may help you decifer what you find.

USA.GOV

http://www.usa.gov

http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml

http://www.usa.gov/Business/Business_Data.shtml

Directory of Federal, State, Local, Tribal Governments – WOW you could easily go on info overload here. Cool site.

IRS CHARITIES SEARCH

http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=96136,00.html

Cumulative List of Organizations described in Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code

STATELINE

http://www.stateline.org/live/

Researching data on a particular state regarding spending, pending and passed legislation, Governor speeches, news, etc.. Fairly complete.

GRANTS

http://grants.library.wisc.edu/index.html

A ton of information on who is eligble, what is available through private and public sources.

GRANTS.GOV

http://www.grants.gov/

Federal grant information

PI BUZZ

http://pibuzz.com/government-pay/

Government Pay Database, Union boss pay database, and all kinds of interesting figures.

CENSUS.GOV

http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=ACS&_submenuId=&_lang=en&_ts=

A ton of public information collected by your friend, the Government

HOMELAND SECURITY

http://www.dhs.gov/files/statistics/data/dsnat.shtm

Statistical Database

GOVERNING SOURCEBOOK

http://sourcebook.governing.com/

State and local sourcebook for all kinds of government data

GLIN.Gov

http://www.glin.gov/search.action

A public database of official texts of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations.

MASS OPEN BOOKS

http://www.massopenbooks.org/

Your money, your government. An online tool to find out how Massachusetts State government is spending your tax dollars!

DOCUTICKER

http://www.docuticker.com/

A daily update of new reports from government agencies, ngo’s, think tanks, and other groups.

CAMPAIGN MONEY

http://www.campaignmoney.com/

A unique website that lets you see for yourself the hidden world of American political campaigns.

PROGRESSIVE PUNCH

http://www.progressivepunch.org/

How left leaning are your politicians? Check their records.