Congressman Sander Levin

Government Oversight

I strongly believe that one of Congress’ most important responsibilities is to conduct vigorous oversight to ensure that laws are being faithfully carried out, that taxpayer’s dollars are well spent, and that allegations of abuse are being thoroughly investigated.

I believe Congress must be transparent about its business and I work to provide up to date information on my own activities, office expenditures, and appropriations requests. I keep an online schedule which is updated every day to reflect the day's activities and outline the activities that are confirmed for the days ahead. This week’s schedule, as well as an archive of old schedules, is available here.

Below is my financial disclosure report, a document which details the source, type, amount, and value of my income. This information is filed with the Clerk of the House by all Members of Congress.

The Clerk of the House also keeps records on Member travel and legal expenses. This information is available here.

Information about my campaign fundraising and expenditures is filed with the Federal Election Commission and is available here.

Congressional Office Transparency

Congressional offices are appropriated a certain amount of money each year to operate their offices depending in part on that District’s distance from Washington, D.C. The 12th District amount for 2010 is $1.48 million. This money has to pay for all expenses including staff salaries, office rent, equipment, telephone bills, supplies, mailings, newsletters and travel between Michigan and D.C. There are rules as to what may be spent on official activities and each mailing or email to an audience larger than 500 people must be approved by the bi-partisan Congressional Standards Mailing Franking Commission under the Committee on House Administration.

All expenses for each office, as well as each committee, are available here. To make my office expenses more accessible, I have included my most recent quarterly expense report below.

Download Congressional Office Expenses

Project Specific Funding Requests or “Earmarks”

It is absolutely essential that the process by which project specific funding is decided be transparent and open to scrutiny. I have for years gone beyond reporting requirements by listing each and every project I request funds for on this web site. The projects I requested funding for in the most recent appropriations bill are available below.

• Timeline of Earmark Reform under the Democratic Congress
• Current Earmark Process
• 2011 Appropriation Project Requests
• 2010 Appropriation Project Requests
• 2010 Water Project Requests
• 2010 Transportation Project Requests
  

Lobbying Reform

When Democrats gained control of Congress in 2007 we passed a landmark rules package which included provisions to end the tight-knit relationship between lobbyists and lawmakers, bring transparency to lobbyists’ activities, and deny taxpayer-funded pension benefits to Members of Congress convicted of corruption.

Furthermore, the Obama Administration instituted tough new restrictions on the role of lobbyists in the executive branch. This included a rule that political appointees must be two years removed from lobbying on an issue they could be working on for the government.

• More on Lobbying Reform

Government Transparency

I welcomed President Obama’s call for a more transparent government. The day after his inauguration President Obama ordered agencies to take affirmative steps to make information public and not simply wait for and respond to FOIA requests. Additionally he has encouraged government agencies to use modern technology to give citizens access to pertinent information. I encourage you to review some of the resources currently available.

• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
• Treasury Department’s Financial Stability Plan
• Earmarks Details
• Federal Program Results
• Where Taxpayer Dollars are Spent
• 2008 Financial Report of the US Government
• Federal Data Aggregator
  

(Update December 7, 2010)