Sunlight foundation gives Pennsylvania Assembly site ‘A’

Sunlight foundation gives Pennsylvania Assembly site “A”

The new website for Pennsylvania’s General Assembly has earned an “A” grade from the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to greater government openness and transparency, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-9) announced.

The new site, www.legis.state.pa.us, was unveiled on November 5.

“Getting an ‘A’ from the Sunlight Foundation demonstrates that we achieved the ultimate goal of rebuilding the General Assembly’s website – making the legislature’s actions more accessible to the public,” Senator Pileggi said. “It’s a wonderful honor.”

The Sunlight Foundation’s Open States project grades state legislative websites on six factors: completeness, timeliness, ease of access, machine readability, standards and permanence. The “A” grade, awarded on Wednesday, replaces the “C” that the previous General Assembly website had been given.

Pennsylvania is one of just 11 states to earn an “A” grade. In total, the Sunlight Foundation awarded Pennsylvania five points – no other state was awarded more.

Senator Pileggi, the author of Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, said he and members of his caucus will continue to advocate for open government initiatives. “We’ve made great progress in recent years, but there’s always more that can be done,” he said. “The Senate Republican Caucus is determined to continue pushing for transparency.”

He pointed to bills approved by the Senate earlier this year to improve access to lobbying disclosure and campaign finance data and create an online voter registration system, as well as bills introduced to make financial disclosure statements easily accessible and to require political party officers to file financial disclosures.

Senator Pileggi encouraged the public to continue making suggestions for the General Assembly’s new website using the Twitter hashtag #PAGAwebsite.