Change Congress

Change Congress is a national movement that aims to end corruption in the U.S. Congress by restructuring the influence of money in Washington. Founded by Lawrence Lessig and Joe Trippi, Change Congress asks citizens and candidates to support reform based on four tenets:
 * 1) Campaigns and candidates accept contributions from individuals (excluding lobbyists) only;
 * 2) Eliminating congressional earmarks;
 * 3) Support efforts to increase transparency in government;
 * 4) Support publicly-financed campaigns.



History
Change Congress was officially launched on March 20, 2008 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. when Lessig held a press conference sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation.

Lessig had considered a run for Congress in 2008, but decided against it, electing instead to focus his attention on the Change Congress movement. Lessig organized Change Congress to operate in three phases: get candidates to embrace the reform platform; build a wiki-based map of reform candidates; and financially support the reformers. The first phase is similar to Lessig's alternative copyright strategy campaign, Creative Commons.

Lessig's goal is stemming "institutional corruption" in Congress, whereby the influence of money has an uneven, distracting, and detrimental pull on the membership.

Principles
Change Congress is based on four basic principles governing the way congressional candidates fund their campaigns and conduct themselves while in office. Candidates and members of Congress can pledge to support any or all of the principles, and will be recognized for doing so.

No money from lobbyists or PACs
Change Congress advocates candidates limit donors to individuals, and asks campaigns to pledge not to accept contributions from lobbyists or political action committees. In doing so, candidates indicate "their votes won't be swayed by big money."

Eliminating earmarks
The organization argues the practice of individual members directing funding in Congress creates an "earmark economy," which diverts taxpayer money to "political donors and pork-barrel projects."

Increased transparency in Congress
Change Congress calls on members to be more open about their activities as elected officials, and asks that congresspeople disclose:


 * Weekly updates of their campaign contributions;
 * Meetings with registered lobbyists;
 * Their latest earmark requests;
 * Significant changes in their personal wealth

Public financing for campaigns
By accepting public funds, Lessig argued, candidates and incumbents could focus on issues and policy, rather than worry about raising money for their election/re-election efforts. A public-financing system would also "close loopholes" and keep "big money" our of Congress.

Pledge
Citizens are able to get a badge that customizes which Change Congress causes they support. They are then given code so that they can place their pledge on their own website. Candidates are given the same choice. Change Congress plans to compile an ongoing list of citizens and candidates, and which cause(s) they support.

Tracking candidates
Change Congress hopes to use volunteers to create a comprehensive list of members of Congress and where they stand on issues of lobbyists, earmarks, public financing, and increased transparency in government.

Political donations
Change Congress also hopes to change citizens' campaign contribution habits by giving people the option of only supporting candidates who pledge to honor some or all of Change Congress' pledge commitments.

External resources

 * Change Congress