2Day in #OpenGov 3/8/2012

by

Policy Fellow Matt Rumsey wrote this post.

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

News Roundup:

Campaign Finance

  • On Tuesday, At least 56 cities and towns across Vermont approved resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. (National Journal)
  • Many of President Obama’s 2008 bundlers ended up landing prestigious jobs in his administration. (Washington Post)
  • The FEC is planning to overhaul some old regulations, more than two years after Citizens United and other Supreme Court decisions necessitated changes. (Politico)
Government
  • WordPress is the worldwide leader in web content management, but in the federal government it lags far behind Drupal which fuels twice as many federal websites as all other content management systems combined. (Federal Computer Week)
  • Rep. Darrell Issa answered questions on Reddit yesterday. He focused on his power as a member of the Judiciary Committee, where he argued against SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA, and called himself an “internet defender and techie”. (Tech President)
International
  • Pakistan is looking for companies to install an internet filtering system with the ability to block up to 50 million web addresses. (Yahoo/AP)
  • A new study from the OpenNet Initiative rates Southeast Asian countries on their level of internet freedom. Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam all received “not free” rankings. (Global Voices)

Relevant committee hearings scheduled for 3/8:

  • Voluntary Census Participation. Oversight and Government Reform. 9:30 am. 2154 RHOB. Health Care, District of Columbia, Census, and the National Archives Subcommittee hearing.
  • Eliminating Homeland Security Waste, Fraud, and Abuse. Homeland Security. 10:15 am. 2322 RHOB. Oversight, Investigations, and Management Subcommittee hearing.

Relevant bills introduced:

  • None.
Transparency events scheduled for 3/8:

Do you want to track transparency news? You can add our feed to your Google Reader, or view it on our Netvibes page.