A Washington watchdog group gives barely passing marks to lawmakers Brian Bilbray, Mary Bono, Duncan Hunter and most other members of Congress when it comes to providing information on their Web sites.

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, scored slightly higher than any other representative in North County. Besides providing the basic information on what he does in Congress -- bills he sponsored, the committees he served on, and how to reach him -- Issa also provided all of the appropriations requests he has made for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.

That extra bit of information pushed Issa into the group of just five lawmakers who scored the top scores of 48 points out of 100, according to leaders of the Washington-based Sunlight Foundation. The Foundation works to use the Internet and new information technology to enable citizens to learn more about what Congress is doing.

Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, Bono, R-Palm Desert and Hunter, R-El Cajon, all scored 40. Overall, members of Congress scored poorly, Sunlight senior fellow Bill Allison said, with the average score being 29 points.

Anything below 40 was considered a failing mark, Allison said, with more than half the members of Congress failed.

In February, the group used 300 volunteers to review the Web sites of all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 members of the U.S. Senate. The Web sites were then rated for the amount of essential information provided on the lawmakers' activities in Congress.

According to news reports, the group was founded in 2006 with a $3.5 million grant from Washington securities lawyer Michael Klein. And earlier this year, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife invested $2 million into the foundation. Allison said Thursday that while the group has been labeled as liberal, greater disclosure by lawmakers is an issue that should be nonpartisan, he said.

"When members use public resources and don't provide information necessary to evaluate their work in public office, then the Web sites are not much of a resource for the public," Allison said.

In rating the sites, the foundation said it looked for a number of factors, including but not limited to: lists of sponsored bills and committees on which each member sits, congressional record statements, contact information, financial disclosures, lawmakers' schedules and date books, and lists of specific, or earmarked projects paid for with federal money.

No federal lawmaker's site contained all of those elements. Locally, only Issa's site contained a list of earmarked projects sponsored by the congressman.

Issa said that he was proud of the fact that he was among the five highest-scoring lawmakers.

Asked whether he believes that he and other lawmakers should be doing more to inform the public of their activities in Congress and publishing on their Web sites things like travel expenditures and personal finances, Issa said not necessarily.

He said that in the case of expenditures and personal finance reports, which members file regularly with the House Clerk's office, he believes that office should be making the information available on its own Web site.

"These are things the clerk has the ability to do," Issa said.

Many say it's hypocritical for the foundation to be asking that members of Congress disclose more information on their Web sites, when Sunlight is not posting where its funding is coming from on its own Web site.

Asked about the discrepancy, Allison said he hadn't been aware that the funding sources for the foundation were not posted on the Web site.

"I am astonished," Allison said. "That obviously is a valid criticism and I will see what we can do to rectify that. That's a problem."

Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper said that Hunter's office has "always supported full disclosure," noting that Hunter was one of the first members of Congress to post his appropriations requests in 2006. He said that the office will again be posting its requests for the coming year.

A spokesman for Bilbray said Thursday that his office was planning on posting all of Bilbray's appropriations requests on his Web site this week. Kurt Bardella said that was being done not because of the Sunlight Foundation's report but because Bilbray had made a campaign promise for greater "transparency" if he were elected. On Friday, Bilbray's office put out a news release saying that his appropriations requests for the coming year had been posted.

Reached by phone Friday, Bilbray said that while he supports the group's efforts, fulfilling the foundation's Web wish list would mean that each lawmaker would need a full-time staff member to update the information in the system.

"They are giving us a goal to shoot for and that is a good thing," Bilbray said.

The vice president of conservative-leaning Washington watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste said Friday that Sunlight is providing an important service by focusing on the need for lawmakers to make their Web sites as informative as possible.

"I understand what they are trying to do is open up Congress to public scrutiny and any attempt at that is noble," said David Williams, the group's vice president of policy. "There needs to be more openness in a government of the people and by the people."

A representative for Bono said Thursday that her office is proud of the amount of information available on Bono's Web site, noting the fact that the site was recently revamped and made more user friendly.

"Since we launched the new Web site in September, we have had over 1.3 million hits," said Bono spokesman Jason Vasquez. Like Issa, Vasquez questioned the cost of providing as much information on the Web site as the foundation would like to see.

"They are asking for a huge amount of information," he said. "What would be the staffing cost to keep all this information up to date?"

Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426, or wbennett@nctimes.com.