NEWS ROUNDUP:
- CRS tax report revised: A report by the Congressional Research Service finding no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth has been re-released after it was pulled nearly three months ago. The report, though slightly different, comes to the same conclusion. (Roll Call)
- Performance.gov overhauled: Performance.gov, the website dedicated to showing progress in building a more efficient government, is changing to reflect more information about federal agencies goals, progress toward those goals, and any challenges along the way. (FCW)
- Alarm raised over FCC plans: A growing number of lawmakers are raising concerns about the Federal Communications Commission's plans to relax restrictions on media consolidation. (The Hill)
2Day in #OpenGov 12/14/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Ethics conflicts for departing members: Lawmakers leaving Congress might have to excuse themselves from certain votes due to conflicts of interest as they contemplate their next job. (The Hill)
- Congress cut out of fiscal cliff talks: Most members of Congress are in the dark when it comes to knowing what's being discussed in meetings regarding the so-called "fiscal cliff." (NPR)
- Democrats prepare counter move on net neutrality: House Democrats might introduce new legislation related to net neutrality if a court throws out the regulations. (POLITICO)
2Day in #OpenGov 12/13/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Groups ask for OCE to continue: Several good-government groups asked House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to fill at least four seats in the Office of Congressional Ethics before the panel ceases to exist. If the seats go unfilled, the panel will expire. (The Hill)
- K Street aims to steer fiscal cliff talk: Lobbyists representing business interests are hoping to steer talk about the so-called "fiscal cliff" in the best interest of their clients. The fiscal cliff negotiations have provided a boost to lobbying firms. (Roll Call)
- Chinese firm fights reputation: A Chinese company accused of posing a security threat to the United States is ramping up its lobbying efforts to fight the bad reputation. (The Hill)
2Day in #OpenGov 12/12/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- State Department Tweets up for review? The State Department is allegedly considering a policy that would force staff to submit their tweets for review days in advance of posting. (FCW)
- White House continues move to open source: The White House appears to be increasingly moving toward sharing code for its websites and letting others reuse that code. (GovTech)
- Boehner aide to lobby shop: Jeff Strunk, a floor aide to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is going to the lobby shop Forbes-Tate. (Roll Call)
2Day in #OpenGov 12/11/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Reporters barred from fiscal cliff call: A conference call between Vice President Joe Biden and local government officials this week is to explicitly exclude the media, according to an invitation obtained by Watchdog.org. The call is supposed to be a discussion of the so-called "fiscal cliff" and the Democrats' plans to deal with it. (Watchdog.org)
- Another private fiscal cliff meeting: Senior White House officials are continuing to hold private meetings with CEOs and interest groups regarding the fiscal cliff. The president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, accompanied by one of the group's lobbyists, is having one such meeting this week. (Roll Call)
- The filibuster goes to court: A federal court has started hearing arguments about the Constitutionality of the filibuster. Four House Democrats and the group Common Cause brought the lawsuit. (Washington Post)
How Congress Cut its Policy Expertise
In the past 20 years, Congress has effectively allowed its legislative support branches to wither and stripped away its ability to process information. It has cut back its ability to review, contextualize, and evaluate information in a way that creates informed policy. Lorelei Kelly, leader of the Smart Congress pilot project at the New America Foundation, looks into this trend in a new paper: "Congress' Wicked Problem." It explores topics we have discussed in a series of posts on the House and Senate. She explains how much of the cutting to the policymaking infrastructure of Congress came in the mid-1990s. That was also the era of cutting the shared staff who had historically built knowledge and expertise around certain topics. Some members of Congress used these shared staff to their advantage, giving relatives and friends plum positions with little real work, but for the most part shared staff were a valuable asset. A rule change in 1995 cut pooled funding for staff and essentially eviscerated the caucus system. Kelly does a fantastic job of explaining in detail what impacts that cut had, showing how the knowledge gap was filled with a new top-down system of information handed out by party leaders. The paper makes an important distinction between information and knowledge in Congress. While lawmakers might receive plenty of information from lobbyists and interest groups, they have a weakened ability to seek other views and context for the flood of spin coming from K Street. Another key change Kelly notes is the elimination of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) in 1995. Congress created the nonpartisan agency in 1972 to look at the impacts of technology policy decisions. After OTA was cut, there were calls for lobbyists to fill the gap. Sunlight and others called for restoring funding to OTA or some other nonpartisan source of expertise. We are glad to see someone exposing how Congress has weakened its ability to understand complex policy decisions, and we hope it will spark more discussion of what can be done to stop the cutting of knowledge.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 12/10/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Obama accepts corporate cash for inauguration: President Barack Obama will accept corporate money for the inauguration, changing course from his first inauguration in 2009. (Washington Post)
- Obama, Romney draw $2 billion during campaign: More than $2 billion was raised to support Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in their campaigns to win the presidency, reports show. At least $1 billion was spent on each candidate by a combination of their own campaigns and supporting groups. (Washington Post)
- Late super PAC donations revealed: Donations poured into super PACs just days before the election, campaign finance records show. The deadline for post-election reports was Dec. 6. (Roll Call)
Transparency and the Obama presidency: Looking Back and Looking Forward – Video and Event Recap
How transparent has President Barack Obama's administration been? While the first term seemed to start with several bold initiatives, members of the transparency community have been disappointed with the apparent lack of initiative since then. Panelists gave the administration mixed reviews at the Dec. 3, 2012 Advisory Committee on Transparency event examining what's happened over the past four years and what in store for the next four. Participants in the panel discussion, moderated by Daniel Schuman, policy counsel at the Sunlight Foundation and director of the Advisory Committee on Transparency, had a hard time listing the Obama administration's accomplishments without mentioning caveats in the same breath. Anne Weismann, chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the administration's efforts may have been well intended but were not always well executed. The decision to release the White House visitor logs, for example, resulted in more transparency about who is trying to influence the executive branch, but also resulted in some staff taking meetings to coffee shops.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 12/7/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- McConnell fights campaign finance reform: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is fighting against campaign finance reform as some members of his caucus talk about supporting the measures. (The Hill)
- Something familiar about backroom talks: President Barack Obama is letting talks about the so-called "fiscal cliff" happen in the dark, despite being criticized during the healthcare reform negotiations for the same kind of move. (POLITICO)
- DeMint leaves Congress for Heritage Foundation: U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) announced he is resigning from Congress to lead the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. South Carolina's governor can appoint a replacement until a special election in 2014. (New York Times)
2Day in #OpenGov 12/6/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- House approves financial disclosure delay: The House approved a bill this week that further delays financial disclosure requirements for nearly 30,000 federal employees. The bill pushes the disclosure back to April 15, 2013. (Washington Post)
- Groups ask Boehner to keep ethics board: Several good-government groups are asking House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to keep the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) in the 113th Congress. Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have to replace at least four of the panel's members for the body to continue to exist. (The Hill)
- A look at the hill's revolving doors: Lawmakers who lost reelection bids are being courted now by lobbyist recruiters as they pack up their offices. Headhunters sometimes end up talking to outgoing members of Congress in locations ranging from House offices to the backseats of cars. (Roll Call)
59063
