[Zdmlscid]

Originally posted by Zkribbler

Why wouldn't they be included. Obama wants the government to be more transparent.
Because they're mostly Democratic affinity groups who fly under the radar of most "anti-lobbyist' groups. Considering the campaign, from what I hear from our clients, has been promising a huge rollback of current "onerous" reporting requirements to DOL for Unions, I'm not holding my breath that an Obama administration is going to be even handed with 'lobbyists'.

I would think every piece of correspondence, minutes of meetings (not involving classified matters), e-mails, etc. will be affected. Since there's going to be a searchable, sortable search engine, the amount of stuff should not be a major problem. Transparency is a good thing. "The best disinfectant is sunshine." This would be all well and good, but the usefulness of the database will depend mainly on its timeliness and to what level the administration declares certain information "privileged". I can't see anything remotely useful for outside groups being posted to this website. There are so many ways that one could get around it anyway.