TESTIMONY TODAY

—PR: “The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), will hold a hearing on Tuesday, May 3, 2011, at 10:30 a.m. in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building.  The hearing is entitled, “White House Transparency, Visitor Logs, and Lobbyists.” The hearing will examine the administration’s claims of transparency and analyze the steps the administration has taken to improve access to information. The White House last week rejected the subcommittee’s request to testify at tomorrow’s hearing.”

Sunlight Policy Director John Wonderlich will be testifying.

FAMILY COVERS CONGRESSMAN’S TAB

—Roll Call: “A wealthy Louisiana businessman and his family used a dozen corporate entities to contribute a total of $60,000 to a defense fund to help Rep. Don Young fight his legal battles, which some critics say circumvented the $5,000 limits for individual donations. … Gary Chouest, the president of Edison Chouest Offshore, a marine transportation company, and other family members control 12 entities that each made $5,000 contributions to the Alaska Republican’s legal expense fund in the first quarter of this year. … The fund’s trustee submitted a quarterly report to the Ethics Committee on April 20 detailing the donations the fund received. The report lists the same post office box address in Galliano, La., for nine of the Chouest-linked entities while the other three have nearby addresses. … The contributions from the Chouest family accounted for the largest share of the $92,000 that Young collected in the first three months of this year for his legal defense fund.”

ETHICS COMMITTEE HIRES STAFF DIRECTOR

—Politico: “Ending months of uncertainty, the House Ethics Committee has named a staffer from its Senate counterpart as staff director and chief counsel. … Daniel Schwager, a lawyer on the Senate Ethics Committee, was approved by the House panel in a bipartisan vote Monday to take over the super-sensitive post, which had been vacant since January. … The hiring will also allow the secretive panel to move forward on the biggest issue it faces – the allegations facing Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), which has been bogged down in partisan fights and internal Ethics Committee staff problems that led to the suspension of two attorneys working on Waters’ case.”