In July, Border Patrol Agent Christian Sanchez of Port Angeles told the not-for-profit Sunlight Foundation Advisory Committee on Transparency in Washington, D.C., that the Port Angeles Border Patrol station where he works is an overstaffed “black hole” with “no purpose, no mission.”

It is in that context that the Advisory Committee on Transparency for the Transparency Caucus in the U.S. Congress hosted a public discussion on July 29, 2011 on the challenges federal whistleblowers face. Video of the hearing, provided courtesy of the Sunlight Foundation, is embedded below.

Sanchez came forward last month at a gathering sponsored by the Advisory Committee on Transparency, an open-government group in Washington, D.C., claiming that the Port Angeles Border Patrol office was a “black hole” with “no mission, no purpose” for the more than 40 agents — 10 times the number it had in 2006 — who patrol Clallam and Jefferson counties.

The Peninsula Daily News writes about the statements of the Border Patrol agent Christian Sanchez at the Sunlight Foundation's Advisory Committee on Transparency meeting:

A U.S. Border Patrol agent said the Port Angeles station is a “black hole” where agents have “no purpose, no mission,” yet are told to work overtime to simply justify its expanding budget.

Port Angeles-based Agent Christian Sanchez told the Advisory Committee on Transparency on Friday in Washington, D.C., that agents who cover the North Olympic Peninsula are ordered to work at least 10-hour shifts even when there’s no work to do and that he has faced retaliation for speaking out against this practice.

The government watchdog group is run by the Sunlight Foundation and advises the Congressional Transparency caucus.

Additionally, Sanchez said, the agents — now numbering 40 — have little relevant work to perform and sometimes pass time by simply driving around the Olympic Peninsula, what agents call the “Baja 500.”

CNN aired a story about alleged waste at a Border Patrol station in Washington state, including video of from the Sunlight Foundation of whistleblower Christian Sanchez speaking at the Advisory Committee on Transparency's July event:

"There's nothing to do," Border Patrol agent Christian Sanchez said during a July event in Washington on government whistle-blowers. "There are no gangs or cross-border activity. I haven't seen it."

Sanchez told the Advisory Committee on Transparency, a forum funded by the not-for-profit Sunlight Foundation, he never intended to become a whistle-blower, but decided to speak out publicly after he felt his complaints about the Port Angeles station's "lack of mission" were being brushed aside by supervisors. Sanchez told the panel he ran afoul of supervisors for refusing overtime he didn't feel he was entitled to since, he said, there was so little work to do.

The Washington Post has a column about Christian Sanchez, a whistleblower and Border Patrol agent, who is presenting his story at the Sunlight Foundation's ACT event on Capitol Hill today.

Sanchez prepared his statement for a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Transparency, a project of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation. The committee and the foundation work for greater openness in government. One of the committee’s events is Friday’s panel discussion on “Making Whistleblowing Work,” to be held at the Rayburn House Office Building.

Sanchez contends that his bosses “want to create their own kingdom. The spending is to expand bureaucratic turf, not to protect our nation.”

After speaking out against the unnecessary overtime, Sanchez said, he became a target of harassment. Days off were not allowed, temporary assignments as shift supervisor were denied and urine drug tests were ordered. “The most ironic harassment,” he said, “has been removing my duties as Chaplain.”

The Seattle Times prints an article about Border Patrol whistleblower's allegations and mention that he recently spoke at an Advisory Committee on Transparency event:

"There's no real reason for anyone to be bored up here," Port Angeles Border Patrol station supervisor Agent Jose Romero said — without mentioning Christian Sanchez, another agent, who last month called the Port Angeles Border Patrol office a "black hole."

At a gathering last month sponsored by a Washington, D.C., open-government group, the Advisory Committee on Transparency, Sanchez said the office had "no mission, no purpose" for its more than 40 agents — 10 times as many as in 2006.

Peninsula Daily News has an article about a Border Patrol agent that presented at the Sunlight Foundation's Advisory Committee on Transparency:

A U.S. Border Patrol supervising agent told a Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce audience Monday that there is plenty for his agents to do on the North Olympic Peninsula — despite another agent’s assertion to the contrary...

During his 45-minute presentation, Romero said the agency focuses on domestic terrorism, narcotics trafficking and contraband in a coverage area that includes Clallam and Jefferson counties.

Sanchez came forward last month at a gathering sponsored by the Advisory Committee on Transparency, an open-government group in Washington, D.C., claiming that the Port Angeles Border Patrol office was a “black hole” with “no mission, no purpose” for the more than 40 agents — 10 times the number it had in 2006 — who patrol Clallam and Jefferson counties.

Peninsula Daily News wrote another story about the Border Control whistleblower that mentions the Sunlight Foundation:

“We’ll briefly review the many actions and events of the summer of 2011 — from the courageous whistle-­blowing by Border Patrol Agent Sanchez to the tragic death of Benjamin Salinas,” Danks said in an email.

Sanchez told the not-for-profit Sunlight Foundation Advisory Group on Transparency in Washington, D.C., on July 29 that he never intended to become a whistle-blower but decided to speak out publicly after he felt his complaints about the Port Angeles station’s “lack of mission” were being brushed aside by supervisors.

Peninsula Daily News wrote a brief story about the CNN story that mentions the Sunlight Foundation Advisory Committee on Transparency:

Sanchez told the not-for-profit Sunlight Foundation Advisory Group on Transparency in Washington, D.C., on July 29 that he never intended to become a whistle-blower, but decided to speak out publicly after he felt his complaints about the Port Angeles station's “lack of mission” were being brushed aside by supervisors.

"There's nothing to do," Border Patrol agent Christian Sanchez said during a July event in Washington on government whistle-blowers. "There are no gangs or cross-border activity. I haven't seen it."

Sanchez told the Advisory Committee on Transparency, a forum funded by the not-for-profit Sunlight Foundation, he never intended to become a whistle-blower, but decided to speak out publicly after he felt his complaints about the Port Angeles station's "lack of mission" were being brushed aside by supervisors.

"There's nothing to do," Border Patrol agent Christian Sanchez said during a July event in Washington on government whistle-blowers. "There are no gangs or cross-border activity. I haven't seen it."

Sanchez told the Advisory Committee on Transparency, a forum funded by the not-for-profit Sunlight Foundation, he never intended to become a whistle-blower, but decided to speak out publicly after he felt his complaints about the Port Angeles station's "lack of mission" were being brushed aside by supervisors.

"There's nothing to do," Border Patrol agent Christian Sanchez said during a July event in Washington on government whistle-blowers. "There are no gangs or cross-border activity. I haven't seen it."
Sanchez told the Advisory Committee on Transparency, a forum funded by the not-for-profit Sunlight Foundation, he never intended to become a whistle-blower, but decided to speak out publicly after he felt his complaints about the Port Angeles station's "lack of mission" were being brushed aside by supervisors.

Seattle Weekly has a piece about the Border patrol whistleblower who spoke at the July Advisory Committee on Transparency event:

One of the things that seems so curious about the Border Patrol's dramatic expansion since 9/11, the subject of my July 27 cover story ... is all the money that the agency is pouring into places that are so far from the border. The people I spoke with told me that agents just seemed to be looking for something to do in order to justify all the extra cash they were receiving—and now a Border Patrol whistleblower from Port Angeles has stepped forward with a jaw-dropping affirmation of that view.

"During our work shifts, other agents and I always talked about how coming to work was like the black hole, swallowing us up slowly with no purpose, no mission," said agent Christian Sanchezin a statement he read at a Washington, D.C., forum last Friday put on by the Advisory Committee on Transparency, a project of the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation.

The POGO Blog has a post about last week's Advisory Committee on Transparency event that quotes the Sunlight Foundation's senior technology advisor Micah Sifry:

“If we were serious about saving government money we would be adding to OSC,” said Micah Sifry, the author of WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency and a senior technology advisor to The Sunlight Foundation, which hosted the panel.

In addition to the change needed to how whistleblowers are regarded, Sifry argued that there needs to be a culture change around the excessive classification of documents as secret. He pointed to the “absurd” fact that between two and three million people have security clearances.

“We should focus on things that are truly important to keep secret,” Sifry said.

The POGO Blog has a post about last week's Advisory Committee on Transparency event that quotes the Sunlight Foundation's senior technology advisor Micah Sifry:

“If we were serious about saving government money we would be adding to OSC,” said Micah Sifry, the author of WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency and a senior technology advisor to The Sunlight Foundation, which hosted the panel.

In addition to the change needed to how whistleblowers are regarded, Sifry argued that there needs to be a culture change around the excessive classification of documents as secret. He pointed to the “absurd” fact that between two and three million people have security clearances.

“We should focus on things that are truly important to keep secret,” Sifry said.

Seattle Weekly's Daily Weekly blog has a post about last Friday's Advisory Committee on Transparency event put on by the Sunlight Foundation:

One of the things that seems so curious about the Border Patrol's dramatic expansion in recent years, the subject of our cover story this week, is all the money that the agency is pouring into places that make no sense given their distance from the border. Our sources told us that agents seemed to be looking for something to do--and now a Border Patrol whistleblower from Port Angeles has stepped forward with a jaw-dropping affirmation of that view.

"During our work shifts, other agents and I always talked about how coming to work was like the black hole, swallowing us up slowly with no purpose, no mission," said agent Christian Sanchez in a statement he read at a Washington, D.C., forum on Friday put on by the Advisory Committee on Transparency, a project of the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation.

The Peninsula Daily News has a follow up article about the Advisory Committee on Transparency event that was put on by the Sunlight Foundation:

Sanchez, a Border Patrol agent for eight years, released a lengthy statement Friday in Washington, D.C., as a panelist at a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Transparency, a project of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation.

The committee and the foundation say they work for greater openness in government.

The advisory committee had asked Sanchez to appear at the request of the Government Accountability Project, a whistle-blower advocacy organization with whom Richmond has worked.

Richmond said he has discussed the case with staff from U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington state and Dicks, who represents Clallam and Jefferson counties.

NextGov has an article covering Friday's Advisory Committee on Transparency event:

Sifry pointed to the aggregated oversight power of the U.S. public at large if they devoted just a few minutes a week to online reporting of state, local and federal government failings.

"Even if you just shift by 1 percent people's TV watching time into being online and interacting ... [in the aggregate] that's the equivalent of 200 Wikipedias," he said after the panel. "If some percent of that is going into people reporting problems -- with potholes being the gateway drug so to speak -- that's going to change what government does because they're going to see all of these complaints piling up."

Sifry was speaking at an event on whistleblowing in the federal government sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation, a transparency advocacy group.

The Peninsula Daily News writes about the statements of the Border Patrol agent Christian Sanchez at the Sunlight Foundation's Advisory Committee on Transparency meeting:

A U.S. Border Patrol agent said the Port Angeles station is a “black hole” where agents have “no purpose, no mission,” yet are told to work overtime to simply justify its expanding budget.

Port Angeles-based Agent Christian Sanchez told the Advisory Committee on Transparency on Friday in Washington, D.C., that agents who cover the North Olympic Peninsula are ordered to work at least 10-hour shifts even when there’s no work to do and that he has faced retaliation for speaking out against this practice.

The government watchdog group is run by the Sunlight Foundation and advises the Congressional Transparency caucus.

Additionally, Sanchez said, the agents — now numbering 40 — have little relevant work to perform and sometimes pass time by simply driving around the Olympic Peninsula, what agents call the “Baja 500.”

The Peninsula Daily News (WA) writes again about waste at a Border Patrol station and quotes whistleblower Christian Sanchez's words at the Sunlight Foundation's Advisory Committee on Transparency event in July:

Port Angeles Border Patrol Agent Christian Sanchez told the Advisory Committee on Transparency on July 20 that the Port Angeles station is a “black hole” staffed by more than 40 agents “with no purpose, no mission.”

Behan said he will ask Bates how many agents staff the Port Angeles station and may ask for arrest data. That information may not be made public, Behan said.

C-SPAN aired a recording of the Sunlight Foundation's Advisory Committee on Transparency event:

Topics included retaliation in the form of harassment, transfers, lessening of duties, and being fired; court decisions that have undermined the Whistleblower Protection Act; and perceptions of whistleblowers.

Barco 2.0 has a blog post on the Advisory Committee on Transparency's panel on the future of CRS.

On Monday, the Sunlight Foundation hosted a forum to discuss the current state of the CRS as well as its future. A panel of speakers talked about the expertise of CRS analysts, the relevance of CRS Reports, and the possibilities for improving public access to CRS Reports that are not considered confidential. A video of the forum is available on C-SPAN (90 minutes). During the discussion, it was reported that a Transparency Bill, that would make CRS reports already in existence public, will be reintroduced this session of Congress as well as a separate, stand-alone CRS bill mandating public access (possibly through Clerk of House/Senate)

Nextgov has a story on the Advisory Committee on Transparency event on the future of the Congressional Research Service.

Stern said he recalled only one time during his eight years as House senior counsel, from 1996 through 2004, when CRS analysts' notes were sought in a lawsuit -- during sweeping litigation between the federal government and tobacco companies. The government did not release the notes, he said.

Stern was speaking at a panel discussion on the CRS' future sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation, an open government group.

Some retired CRS staffers in the audience saw the loss of constitutional protections as a greater possibility than Stern did.

The Washington Post's 2Chambers has a mention of the upcoming Advisory Committee on Transparency event on the future of CRS today on the Hill.

2 p.m.: The Advisory Committee on Transparency hosts an event in 2203 Rayburn on the future of the Congressional Research Service.

Secrecy News has a blog post on looking through Congressional Research Service reports that mentions author Steven Aftergood's participation on the upcoming Advisory Committee on Transparency panel on "The Future of CRS."

I will be participating in a panel discussion on “The Future of CRS” on Monday, April 11, sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation’s Advisory Committee on Transparency, which will address the issue of public access to CRS products and related issues.

Capitol News Connection has an interview with Sunlight policy counsel Daniel Schuman on the value of transparency and the Advisory Committee on Transparency event during Sunshine Week.

SCHUMAN But we sort of wondered – looking at the entire info ecosystem, what’s going on with lobbying?

Daniel Schuman is Policy Counsel at the aptly named Sunlight Foundation. Those who make a living shedding light on the workings of government start with a straightforward principle:

SCHUMAN It’s useful to have a good understanding of what’s going on.

When it comes to identifying, mapping and tracking influence in Washington, we really don’t know what’s going on. Schuman is director of the Advisory Committee on Transparency, which is holding a public forum this afternoon on the Hill with a panel of experts from the separate but co-dependent worlds of watch-dogging, journalism and, of course, K Street.

C-SPAN Video Library has video of the Advisory Committee on Transparency event sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation.

Money in Politics Ohio reported on the Advisory Committee on Transparency event.

Such was the launching point of the discussion during an event held this afternoon in the Rayburn House Office Building and sponsored by the Advisory Committee on Transparency. The Advisory Committee is a project funded by the Sunlight Foundation, which also funds the Center for Responsive Politics….

Political Activity Law Blog has a piece highlighting Sunlight's Advisory Committee on Transparency event.

SUNLIGHT FOUNDATION EVENT ON LOBBYING REFORMS. I enjoyed listening to yesterday’s lobbying reform event on the Hill with Dan Eggen, Sheila Krumholz, Daniel Schuman, Lisa Rosenberg, Paul Miller, and Tom Susman. Some of my photos are available here. The panel covered a lot of interesting ground; at the end of the panel a member of Rep. Quigley’s staff announced that a bill might be introduced reflecting a number of reform proposals. As an aside, at one point, the lobbyist sitting next to me vocalized his objection to using FARA disclosure as a model for lobbying disclosure, as raised as a possibility by Post reporter Dan Eggen. CSPAN recorded the event so head over there to watch the panel.

OpenSecrets Blog has a piece on the Advisory Committee on Transparency panel entitled "Washinton's Lobbying Fix".

Such was the launching point of the discussion during an event held this afternoon in the Rayburn House Office Building and sponsored by the Advisory Committee on Transparency. The Advisory Committee is a project funded by the Sunlight Foundation, which also funds the Center for Responsive Politics.

Additional transparency about lobbying activities is needed, argued Lisa Rosenberg, a lobbyist for the Sunlight Foundation, in order to "reduce corruption and the appearance of corruption."

In the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling last year, which allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited sums of money on political advertisements, lobbyists may imply their clients will spend millions of dollars on negative ads if they don't get their way, Rosenberg continued.

DC LinkTank included the Advisory Committee on Transparency event in their weekly roundup.

Texas on the Potomac, a blog of the San Antonio Express-News, has a roundup of new headlines including highlighting the ACT event on the Hill.

On Deck: This afternoon

? The Sunlight Foundation holds a panel discussion on a possible overhaul of lobbying disclosure rules at 2 p.m. EDT in the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2203.

OpenSecrets blog has a story on transparency events during Sunshine Week that lists the Advisory Committee on Transparency's event on Washington lobbying.

The panel discussion, which is sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation's Advisory Committee on Transparency, begins at 2 p.m. Monday in Room 2203 of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. The public is invited to attend.

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog has a post on Sunshine Week events that mentions the Advisory Committee on Transparency event.

Panel Discussion: Washington’s Lobbying Fix

Monday, March 14, 2:00 PM
Rayburn House Office Building
Hosted by the Sunlight Foundation's Advisory Committee on Transparency

This discussion "will address the challenges facing lobbying reform and the actions needed to enact real-time lobbying disclosure in Washington."

Colorado DUI Legal News & Help has a blog post including video of Daniel Schuman of the Advisory Committee on Transparency.

A blog post that mentions the Sunlight Foundation's participation in the Advisory Committee on Transparency and the planned upload of video from the latest committee meeting.