Here is Friday’s look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events.

News Roundup:

Government

• Rep. Anthony Weiner resigned today after a scandal relating to online sexcapades. (National Journal)
• The House Financial Services and General Government appropriations subcommittee approved its draft spending bill for FY2012. The bill moved the E-Government Fund into the GSA’s Office of Citizen Services, and provides for a slight increase in funding. (OMB Watch)
• The Committee on House Administration is considering switching to electronic documents in order to reduce paper and make documents searchable. (Federal News Radio)
• Sen.Inhofe (R-Okla.) is introducing an amendment  to the Economic Development Revitalization Act (EDA) which would give the Government Accountability Office (GAO) the authority to audit the distribution of EDA grants. (Canada Free Press)
• 95% of the work of the Health Data Initiative is letting people know that certain health data sets are free and open to the public, according to HHS CTO Todd Park. (Fierce Government IT)

Lobbying

• Irregular Times visualizes the overlap between lobbying firms hired by the top ten federal contractors, using lobbying disclosure data for the first quarter of 2011.

Campaign Finance

• People for the American Way have published a report looking at corporate influence in the 2010 elections.
• The FEC asked Crossroads GPS to disclose its contributors. The nonprofit is unlikely to comply with the request. (National Journal)
• The House included a provision which would prevent the government from requiring federal contractors to disclose political spending in the National Defense Authorization bill passed by the chamber. (Project on Government Oversight)
• Federal prosecutors appealed a ruling declaring the law banning corporate contributions to federal candidates unconstitutional. (Washington Post)

State and Local

• Leading Mayoral candidates in San Francisco had a discussion regarding open government, civic engagement, technology and innovation yesterday evening. (techPresident)
• Apps are being developed using the datasets newly released by the City of Chicago. (techPresident)
• The Philadelphia Bar Association and Chamber of Commerce oppose the city’s new lobbying disclosure regulations. (Philly.com)

International

• The East Africa conference on budget transparency met recently and developed resolutions aimed at increasing the transparency of the countries’ budgets. (All Africa)

Relevant committee hearings scheduled for 6/17:

• None.

Relevant bills introduced:

• H.R. 2188. A bill to require government-wide application of continuous process improvement methods to reduce waste and improve the effectiveness of the Federal Government, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
• S.1222. A bill to amend title 31, United States Code, to require accountability and transparency in Federal spending, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Transparency events scheduled for 6/17:

• Digital Media Conference. Digital Media Wire. 9:00am-6:00pm. Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel. 2800 South Potomac Ave. Arlington, VA 22202.
• 2011 Community Technology Summit. Friday 11:00am – Saturday 5:00pm. Bowie State University. 1400 Jericho Park Road. Bowie, MD 20715.