With the very likely possibility that Cabinet officials will appear at pro-Obama super PAC events, such as though hosted by Priorities USA Action, the Sunlight Foundation calls on the White House to at least make that process transparent.

The President should lean on Priorities USA, who should disclose top officials' attendance at fundraisers. He should also require White House officials and Cabinet Secretaries to disclose their attendance at fundraisers somewhere as part of their schedule, as the President himself does (see "campaign activity"). The Hatch Act may create some difficulties in finding the right mechanism for this disclosure, but we need a better answer than total secrecy.

On Thursday, House Democrats unveiled The DISCLOSE 2012 Act (HR 4010), a crucial step toward transparency to address the corrupting influence unlimited, secret corporate and union money is having on our elections and our elected officials.

The bill will create robust reporting requirements for super PACs, corporations, unions and nonprofit organizations that decide to make campaign expenditures. It will also require reporting of transfers by those groups to others making such expenditures, to prevent the money laundering that makes it easy to hide huge campaign contributions.