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

News Roundup:

Government

• New rules from the National Institute of Health make steps toward improving disclosure rules and preventing conflicts of interest. (POGO)
• Pending Dodd-Frank regulations will increase transparency by moving between 45%-80% of the derivative market through more regulated exchanges. (Sungard)

Super Congress

• Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), a member of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, announced that the committee has already held conference calls and may have a website up by the end of the week. (Politico)
• Opinion: Given the special interests surrounding the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, committee members should be required to disclose contributions within 48 hours of receiving them. (New York Times)

Lobbying

• A number of organizations that have lobbied the US on behalf of issues concerning Libya are closely watching developments in Tripoli. (Politico)

Campaign Finance

• The AFL-CIO has announced it intends to create a “Super PAC” to oppose candidates that have supported anti-union legislation. (Politico)

Technology

• IBM’s Center for the Business of Government released a report recommending that government agencies do more to educate the public about the Open Government Initiative to increase “high quality public participation.” (NextGov)
• Opinion: America’s CIO should look to foreign countries for ways to improve our use of technology and bring down costs. (GovTech)
• Opinion: “Risk aversion and fear of the unknown” prevent governments from making progress with information technology and open government initiatives. (Gov in the Lab)

State and Local

• Lobbyists paid by local Illinois municipalities are hard at work lobbying the state government to roll back provisions of a recently passed update to the state’s FOIA law. (Northwest Herald)
• Opinion: Many of San Francisco’s open government applications make information available only to people who know what they want and how to use it. Many consider the available information to be selective, incomplete, and boring. (SF Public Press)

International

• Prince Charles is under fire for allegedly using his private charities to lobby government ministers. (Daily Mail)
• Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson may have received a large severance package and benefits from the paper’s parent company while he worked as an aide for Prime Minister David Cameron. (BBC)
• Ilgar Mammadov, co-chairman of the Republican Alternative civic movement in Azerbaijan, talked to Revenue Watch about what transparency in Eurasia means for global open government efforts. (Revenue Watch)

Relevant committee hearings scheduled for 8/23:

• None

Relevant bills introduced:

• None

Transparency events scheduled for 8/23:

• Gov’t Agencies, Mobile Apps Mobile Applications: Impacts on Agency Operations 2:00PM (Webinar) GovExec