The Sunlight Foundation Dims



The Sunlight Foundation announced on Tuesday that it is laying off five members of its staff and exploring possible merger opportunities.

The decision came as the group failed to find a new director after a months long search. The group is “now exploring potential alliances, mergers or arrangements with similar organizations that would both advance and preserve our mission to make governments and political systems more open,” according to staffer Alex Howard.

The group is also ending their databases and tool operations. Sunlight was known for its databases, such as OpenCongress. That tool is now being retired.

Sunlight does say though that it will attempt to find new management for some of its projects and code will be released open source.

Rick Klein, the co-founder and chair of the board, said, “the board had to recognize that Sunlight’s initiating objective— to build support for better legislation against and regulation of the power of money in politics— has been significantly limited by the US Supreme Court’s 5-4 Citizens United decision.”


About Tyler

Tyler is the chief media reporter for TKNN, with the news organization since its founding in November of 2010. He has previously served as chief political reporter and chief political anchor for TKNN.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *