The American Baking Association has successfully lobbied for an exemption from the new food safety law, as Sunlight’s Reporting Group... View Article
Continue readingRulemaking in the dark: Little disclosure when big food lobbies the FDA
Last January, when the Food and Drug Administration released strict new rules for ensuring the cleanliness of food production, distribution and warehousing facilities, the American Bakers Association crowed in a press release that they'd "won a major victory" for its members. They had--the proposed rules wouldn't apply to many of their warehouses.
Not mentioned in that press release was the person who helped the ABA achieve the win: Miriam Guggenheim, a food policy focused attorney with Covington and Burling. Though she has not been registered as a lobbyist since 2010--before Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act--her online ...
Continue readingFeds have no policy on posting meetings
While the federal government has extensive rules about how its regulatory agencies makes rules--with notices, publication schedules and comment periods--there is no government-wide policy for providing information to the public about meetings between executive branch officials and private interests. These contacts between regulators those seeking to influence them--refered to as ex parte meetings--can have a profound effect on the final shape of the rules that govern everything from disposing of trash to disclosing positions in complex derivatives. Yet there is no uniform requirement to make information about these meetings available to the public, let alone whether or not agencies must ...
Continue readingStar Wars: Major Players in Space Industry Battle Over Launch Pad Lease
The biggest challenges that commercial space flight companies Blue Origin and Spacex face this fall may not take place outside of the stratosphere, but rather right here on Earth.
As reported by the Waco Tribune, these two players of the fledgling industry are the sole competitors for a NASA contract to lease the historic Launch Pad 39a -- a part of the John F Kennedy Space Center in Florida that was the point of departure for dozens of Space Shuttle missions. A review of the influence profiles of these companies points to a heavyweight showdown, as both groups have serious financial ...
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 9/25/2013
National News
- After taking some time off 7-Eleven, the convenience store chain known for helping cure the munchies at all hours of the day or night, is re-opening its corporate PAC. Recently, the chain has been interested in immigration reform and attempting to become eligible for the SNAP program. (Roll Call)
- After some delay, the Senate approved President Obama's two recent nominees to the FEC. Republican Lee Goodman and Democrat Ann Ravel were approved by unanimous consent and will join the board shortly. (Public Integrity)
- Aneesh Chopra, the first ever US CTO, argued that APIs are the wave towards open data in the future. After an unsuccesful run for public office, Chopra recently joined up with Apigee, an API manegment and strategy company. (Government Technology)
- China is planning to lift its restrictive internet rules, including its ban on Facebook, but only within the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone. (SCMP)
- A new report looks at fledgling FOI laws in emerging democracies, identifying a number of ways that existing FOI legislation can be improved. (NDI Democracy Works)
- Before his speech at the UN yesterday President Obama spoke at a roundtable on ways that Civil Society can be supported around the world. He argued that the future of democracy depends on support for NGO and citizen involvement in public affairs. (POLITICO)
- The Center for Urban Science and Progress, a new research center launched in downtown Brooklyn, aims to become the world's authority on "urban informatics." It is housed within New York University and takes advantage of private funding from IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, and more. (The Atlantic Cities)
- New York kept rolling out open data news this week. Yesterday it was the Big Apple releasing their Open Data Compliance Plan, which was a requirement of the 2012 open data law and outlined a timeline for release of more than 400 data-sets through 2018. The release is surely impressive, but some noted important data sets that weren't mentioned. (Tech President)
Complete Local Legislative Data
When we talk about providing a transparent and legible legislative process, the first step is identifying all the moving parts that contribute to the passing of law. In Washington, D.C., this means not just following the city council, but also following D.C.’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, or ANCs, the hyperlocal government entities that advise the city council on community issues. Although the District’s city government structure is uniquely granular, it serves as an excellent model for understanding what a complete legislative data framework should consist of.
Continue readingTrying to track committee hearings? Why docs.house.gov may be your best bet
By Carrie Tian and Matt Rumsey. Research Assistance by Justin Lin.
Every morning in Washington staffers, lobbyists, activists, and ordinary citizens are faced with choices as they try to schedule their days on Capitol Hill. To fill their calendars and get to hearings on time they have to navigate several, often conflicting, sources of information to find the right date, time, and hearing room. As a result they can find themselves checking their laptops before leaving the house and refreshing their phones as they rumble down the Redline.
Docs.House.Gov, among its other features, aims to simplify this problem by becoming a one-stop repository for information on House committee hearings. We decided to look back at the first six months of this program to see how close it was coming to the ideal of including every House committee hearing, as compared to the other sources of “the same” information, notably house.gov/legislative and individual committee websites.
Today in #OpenGov 9/24/2013
National News
- Google was having email issues yesterday, but maybe we can forgive them as they were busy launching a new tool to help emerging democracies design a more perfect union for themselves. The web giant's new site, Constitute, is a collaboration with the Comparative Constitutions Project that draws from the world's constitutions. (The Verge)
- The complicated tale of Doug Band, President Clinton's closest aide who has run into trouble after building a business perched on his access to his boss. (New Republic)
- While many defense firms slowed their PAC giving in August, Lockheed Martin kept up a brisk pace, with nearly $200,000 in donations to federal candidates and committees via its Lockheed Martin Corporation Employees' PAC. (Roll Call)
- Republicans made good use of disappearing campaign finance restrictions to tighten their hold on power in state legislatures across the country over the past couple of years. Now Democrats, getting over some of their distaste for super PACs and the like, are looking to use the unlimited money machines two even the scales a bit. (POLITICO)
- Research suggests that parliamentary monitoring organizations are failing to engage with certain groups, specifically women and those with lower incomes. (Opening Parliament)
- Three years after reporting a bribe on Indian site IPaidABribe.Com a student from Bangalore saw his effort pay off. The student paid a bribe in order to receive a receipt for registering for an identity card and action was recently taken against the official in question. (Tech President)
- A former Republican Candidate for the Boston City Council is launching a super PAC that aims to turn urban voters to the GOP. Robert Fortes, who is also a charter school lobbyist, describes himself as a "proud" black Republican. (Public Integrity)
- The San Diego City Council is floating a draft open data policy that could go into effect as early as January 1, 2014. The policy would create a Chief Data Officer, release data on a rolling basis, and include some notable exemptions. (Voice of San Diego)
Why Kenya’s open data portal is failing – and why it can still succeed
Kenya’s open data portal is floundering. Despite the excitement that surrounded its launch in July 2011, the portal has not been updated in eight months, has seen stagnant traffic, and is quickly losing its status as the symbolic leader of open government in Africa.
For a number of reasons, the portal, which runs on a Socrata platform and can be viewed here, has not lived up to the often sky-high expectations of many onlookers.
First, government ministries have been reluctant to release data. Many observers expected that the launch of the portal would help eradicate the Kenyan government’s harmful culture of secrecy. The Official Secrets Act, a holdover from the colonial era that prevents government employees from sharing official information, has created a closed culture in government and has starved the portal of much needed information.
Second, implementation of the new constitution has hamstrung government officials who are trying to adjust to new roles and identify new responsibilities, significantly reducing government officials’ ability to incorporate open data into their already overburdened workstreams. The new Kenyan constitution, which was overwhelmingly passed in a 2010 referendum, created a new devolved system of government. Large changes are still being implemented, and government officials are struggling to adjust.
This inexhaustive list displays some of the large obstacles standing between the open data portal and the goals of a more transparent, accountable, and effective government. Despite these challenges, there is still hope that Kenya’s open data experiment can regain its footing and reestablish itself as an open government leader.
Today in #OpenGov 9/23/2013
National News
- Last week, the Department of Defense made headlines for lacking a functioning fax machine with which to accept FOIA requests. This week, the machine appears to have been replaced, despite initial estimates by the DoD that it would have to wait until the new fiscal year to get its FOIA process back up and running. (The Verge)
- A top FCC staffer is heading to lobbing behemoth Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Gregory Guice, who most recently led the FCC's legislative affairs shop and has been with the regulator for more than a decade, will join the number 2 lobbying firm in D.C., likely working with telecom clients like AT&T, Cox, and more. (The Hill)
- The party fundraising committees reported their most recent results last week and the results were a mixed bag. The RNC continues to out-raise the DNC by handy margins, while on the Congressional side the DCCC and DSCC pulled in more than their Republican counterparts. (POLITICO, POLITICO, Roll Call)
- It has become relatively common knowledge that President's like to reward big donors and bundlers with cushy ambasadorial gigs, but this handy map makes it clear just how wide-spread the practice is under Obama. (Public Integrity)
- Code for America Brigades have been springing up across America for some time, and now they are making the trip across the ocean. The local civic hacking program will expand internationally with groups in Ireland, Japan, and Poland. (Code for America)
- There is no shortage of parliamentary monitoring organizations in Africa as this list, complete with links and other information, makes clear. (Indigo Trust)
- Six years ago civil society groups in Palestine nearly passed an access to information law. This year they are giving it another go with a new report and push for the Palestinian Authority to institute a law. (Transparency International)
- As Mayor Michael Bloomberg runs out the clock on his time at the helm of New York troubling news is emerging about his records retention policies. The city is only planning to save emails from a small number of agencies to ward off against future litigation. No decision has been made about emails from the NYPD, FDNY, and Department of Education. (DNA Info)
- In more New York News, Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed three special advisors to push forward on the state's open data initiatives. Andrew Nicklin, former R&D director at New York's IT department will lead Open NY. James Hendler, who was an advisor on data.gov, will work on the open.ny.gov platform. He will be joined by Theresa Pardo, director of the Center for Technology in Government at the University of Albany. (Tech President)
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