NEWS ROUNDUP:

• Lobbying law loopholes may have allowed many individuals who were registered to lobby in 2011 to deregister in subsequent years while still working for the same companies, and possibly continuing to lobby. There are plenty of reasons why a lobbyist would want to deregister ranging from fear of stigma to the desire to land an administration job. (Roll Call)
• Mary Schapiro, the former head of the SEC, has found her way through the revolving door and into a job with Promontory Financial Group. The private consulting firm has a long list of former regulators on its roster. (POGO)
• Five New York state politicians were arrested yesterday in a bizarre case of attempted bribery. State Senator Malcolm Smith, a Democrat, was arrested for allegedly conspiring to bribe Republican county chairmen to support a plan that would have Smith run for Mayor on the Republican ticket. Unfortunately for Smith and his alleged conspirators, the wealthy real estate developer bankrolling the plan was really an undercover FBI agent. (NPR, National Journal)
• According to a new government report on Open Government Partnership compliance the U.S. acted on 24 of it’s 26 initial commitments. One of the discarded commitments was ExpertNet, a government wide online community that would have allowed volunteer experts to give consultations. (Fierce Government)
• President Obama has taken a different, and in some ways much more limited approach, to dealing with the press than previous presidents. While he holds more formal press conferences and one-on-one interviews, he rarely faces the press in uncontrollable situations. (Huffington Post)
• Opinion: The Justice Department should do a better job of making its Office of Legal Counsel opinions publicly available. They currently withhold significant numbers of the documents and are fighting the Electronic Frontier Foundation over a request by the EFF for access to an OLC opinion on the FBI’s authority to surveil American’s without a warrant. (Washington Post)

RELEVANT BILLS INTRODUCED:

• S. 664. Government Contractor Accountability Act of 2013.
• S. 652. Securities Litigation Attorney Accountability and Transparency Act.

HAPPENING TODAY 4/3:

• Legislative Transparency and the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. George Mason School of Public Policy. Wed. 4/3. 12:00 – 1:00 pm. George Mason University, Arlington Campus, 3301 Fairfax Drive, Founders Hall, Room 317, Arlington, VA 22201.

HAPPENING TOMORROW 4/4:

• Ukraine’s Troubled Media: Prospects for the country’s democratic future. NED. Thurs. 4/4. 4:30 pm. National Endowment for Democracy, 1025 F Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20004.

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