2Day in #OpenGov 4/19/2012

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NEWS ROUNDUP

Government

  • Earmarks by any other name… In the wake of reforms that effectively ended the earmark process many lobbyists have looked for new ways to secure taxpayer funds for local projects that would help their clients. Those who survived have learned to work the executive and legislative branches. (Roll Call $)
  • Help New York Open Data: New York City launched a public wiki and asked for help writing its citywide policies and technical standards for open data. (Tech President)
  • Industry, meet government! Interact, an online community launched by the GSA, aims to help industry and government interact in a positive, productive, and technologically oriented way. (Federal Computer Week)
Access to Information
  • Congress can’t improve FOIA without executive help? In a recent letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the federal government’s FOIA ombudsman did not recommend any legislative changes to improve the law. This has upset Senators and openness advocates who say that a 2007 law mandating recommendations to Congress has never been complied with. (Politico)
  • Who bears the burden of censorship? The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is suing the Milwaukee Police Department over the city’s attempts to charge the newspaper for censoring police reports requested under public records laws. (Courthouse News)
  • House says Executive Branch never learned to share: House Republicans and the Congressional Research Service are frustrated with the Executive Branch’s slow responses to Congressional requests for information. (The Hill)

RELEVANT BILLS INTRODUCED

  • H.R. 4343. The Foreign Lobbying Reform Act. Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.
  • S. 2285. A bill to increase civil penalties for institutions of higher education that fail to comply with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. Referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

HAPPENING TODAY 4/19

SCHEDULED TOMORROW 4/20

Policy Fellow Matt Rumsey wrote this post.

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