After nearly two years, no sign of centralized database

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to "create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format." As we noted in our previous update, much of this was actually implemented after passage of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed by President George W. Bush in 2007, thanks to Obama's leadership in the Senate.
 
Under that law, the clerk of the House and the secretary of the Senate maintain databases of lobbying reports and campaign contributions by lobbyists and lobbyist-controlled political action committees. The databases provide much more information on lobbying and campaign contribution filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format than was previously available.
 
However, as we noted previously, the data is not located in a single, unified database but in a series of separate databases. And in the 14 months since our last update was published, there's been no further progress on centralizing them, experts said.
 
"No such single database yet exists," said Daniel Schuman, policy counsel for the Sunlight Foundation, a pro-transparency group.

In general, the administration has taken steps to improve public access to Internet-based data, whether it's on the stimulus-tracking Recovery.gov website or a series of other online portals. But we interpret the word "centralized" as the crux of this promise, since it would offer information-seekers the most convenient access to the data the administration says it wants to make available. And that hasn't happened yet. If it does emerge before Obama leaves office, we'll change our rating, but for now, we're calling this a Promise Broken.