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

Collected by Policy Intern Jacob Hutt. Here is Tuesday's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup: Government

• President Obama issued an executive order to independent regulatory agencies asking them to examine existing regulations that are ineffective or inefficient. (The Hill)
• The U.S. and Brazil will meet today to launch the International Open Government Partnership, which will encourage governments to focus on transparency, accountability, and citizen participation, among other things. (techPresident)
• Darrell Issa's experience as chairman of the House Oversight committee has thus far proved both parties' predictions for him wrong, the Washington Post reports. (The Washington Post)
• Opinion: Recent efforts at enhancing transparency in federal spending are not without their shortcomings. (Washington Business Journal)
• Opinion: The OMB should allow the National Institutes of Health to continue with their public disclosure requirements. (POGO)

• The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority proposed a new rule banning former regulators from appearing as clients or testifying as experts at FINRA within one year of leaving their positions. Similar rules already exist in other SEC entities. (Bloomberg)

• Corporations and lobbyists donate to politicians' favorite charities in order to gain their approval, the Associated Press reports. (AP)

• House Oversight Chair Darrell Issa sent a letter to President Obama's top lawyer on Monday questioning whether the president has been engaging in illegal campaign activity while in the White House. (Politico)
• Budget architect Rep. Paul Ryan met for dinner with two economists and the table ordered $700-worth of wine. Ryan reportedly did not pay for the wine, possibly constituting a gift-related ethics violation. (TPM)

• The National Archives' Wikipedian-in-residence has utilized crowd-sourcing as an innovative way to put more holdings online. His experience has proved as a model for other government agencies. (Next Gov)

• The Oklahoma House Speaker ordered all interim legislative studies to be published online in an effort to enhance transparency. (The Norman Transcript) We'd like CRS to do the same!
• Students at the LBJ School of Public Affairs released a study describing progress towards open government in Texas. (Statesman)

• Opinion: In Australia, only regulating one class of lobbyists enables others to carry on without disclosure. (The National Times)

Collected by Policy Intern Jacob Hutt. Here is Monday's look at the week's transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup: Government

• House Democrats accused Eric Cantor of having a conflict of interest in the debt ceiling negotiations, as he has investments that might rise in value if the government defaults on its debts. (Huffington Post)
• A recent study found that the investments of Members of Congress significantly outperform the market, in part due to their access to nonpublic information that can positively affect their trading prospects. (The New York Times)
• Elizabeth Warren, head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has made her meeting schedule available online.
• Opinion: In order to ensure transparency, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand should provide a greater distinction between her website advocating for women's participation in politics and her personal 2012 re-election campaign. (Buffalo News)

• First Street published an exhaustive list of revolving door lobbyists involved in the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile. (First Street)
• President Obama's former communications director Anita Dunn is now managing the food and media industry's campaign against the president's anti-childhood obesity efforts. (National Journal)

• The Sensible Food Policy Coalition, an anti-regulation group of corporations, has lobbied four federal agencies against voluntary standards that the government sets for child nutrition. (The Washington Post)
• The Dalai Lama is a rare example of a revered lobbyist, as he has lobbied Congress and the American public on Tibet's behalf for years. (POGO)

• The House Ethics committee announced that it will be reviewing a possible ethics violation by Rep. Michael McCaul's (R-TX) Chief of Staff. The committee frequently does not publicly announce these reviewals. (Chron)

• The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe declared that access to the Internet is a fundamental human right. (Yahoo News)
• Opinion: States should increase public access to information by putting it online and eliminating unnecessary costs of access. (Herald Dispatch)

• The South Dakota Secretary of State is seeking greater public accessibility to lobbyist information. (Argus Leader)
• Analysis of campaign donation data in Arizona shows that the largest source of campaign contributions in 2010 was individual donations, rather than corporation contributions. (Arizona Republic)
• Opinion: Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam should rescind his January order that eased income disclosure requirements for politicians for the sake of state transparency. (The Tennessean)

• Opinion: the Punjab government should speedily enact the draft Punjab Freedom of Information bill to ensure the right to information in Pakistan. (Dawn)

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

Thanks to our Policy Intern Jacob Hutt for today’s round-up! Here is Thursday’s look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee... View Article

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