NEWS ROUNDUP:
- The Office of Government Ethics weighed in in favor of the recent NAPA report that recommended indefinite suspension of a STOCK Act requirement that would have put financial disclosure reports from 28,000 Federal employees online. (Washington Post)
- Wal-Mart is lending its might to the National Retail Federation, one of Washington's bigger retail trade associations. The NRF has invested heavily in its Washington presence recently, spending more than $3.5 million lobbying last year. (The Hill)
- New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has helped convince several Fortune 500 to tell their shareholders about political contributions that they make with corporate funds. DiNapoli targets companies held in the New York State Retirement fund and has come to agreements with 18 over the past three years. (K Street cafe)
- A former deputy Senate Sergeant at Arms and high level aide to Majority Leader Harry Reid is taking a trip through the revolving door. Martina Bradford, who is no stranger to the influence industry with previous stints at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld as well as AT&T, is joining the Bockorny Group as a principal. (The Hill)
- ManaBalss, an effort to get Latvian citizens directly involved in their government, has had some significant successes since it launched in 2010. It is seen as a big step in a country that has seen low levels of political engagement and trust in government. (Tech President)
Gun legislation in states forecasts close fight in Congress
As the Senate opens debate on gun control after a last-minute bipartisan deal, a review of legislation now before state lawmakers gives a striking evidence of how difficult it will be to enact restrictions on firearms into law, even given the political momentum such measures have received following the December shooting tragedy that left 26 people -- most of them young children -- dead at the Sandy Hook elementary school at Newtown, Conn.
A review of nearly 1,500 firearms-related bills introduced in the 50 state legislatures since the beginning of the year by Sunlight reveals that the post-Newtown push for stronger ...
Continue readingWhy Promontory matters
Today’s New York Times looks into the case of Promontory Financial Group, a self-described “leading strategy, risk management and regulatory compliance consulting firm focusing primarily on the financial services industry.” What’s notable, according to the Times is that:
Nearly two-thirds of its roughly 170 senior executives worked at agencies that oversee the financial industry. The founder, Eugene A. Ludwig, is a former comptroller of the currency and a law school friend of Bill Clinton; the latest hire, Mary L. Schapiro, ran the Securities and Exchange Commission until late last year.
Building off those connections, the Promontory Financial Group has emerged as a major power broker in Washington, helping Wall Street navigate an onslaught of new rules and regulatory scrutiny. Promontory accompanied Morgan Stanley when the bank urged regulators to rethink limits on risky trading, records show. It also joined Bank of America, Citigroup and other big banks at the Treasury Department to discuss plans for dismantling failing financial firms.
Using Sunlight’s Dodd-Frank meeting logs tracker, the Times found ten instances where firm executives met with regulators to discuss “thorny issues like the so-called Volcker Rule that curbs risky trading.”
Continue readingObama Pushes Senate E-Filing in Proposed Budget
President Obama’s 2014 budget includes a Sunlight priority that won’t erase the deficit, but will streamline the way that important... View Article
Continue readingA Mockery of the Law: IRS and DOJ Fail to Enforce Laws Against Dark Money Groups
Neither the IRS nor the Department of Justice have prosecuted flagrant violations of campaign finance and related tax laws, despite... View Article
Continue readingObama phones go by another name in Congress
Washington Post reporter Karen Tumulty's intriguing story today about the coining of a term and its political impact got us to wondering just how far the term "Obama phone" had embedded itself into the political culture. We've written before about how compounds of President Barack Obama's name have become politically charged.
We took a look via Capitol Words, Sunlight's tool that scans the Congressional Record and allows users to analyze speech patterns.
So far, no recorded mentions of "Obamaphone" or "Obama phone" on the floor of the House or Senate.
However, we did find a number ...
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 4/10/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- The GAO's third annual report on duplication in the federal government includes and interesting tidbit on some freely available government data. It looks like the Commerce Department has been charging other agencies millions of dollars for reports from the National Technical Information Service even though 74 % of the NSIT's studies are easily accessible online. (Washington Times)
- Whoever ends up taking on Mitch McConnell in 2014 is going to need some serious fundraising chops. The Senate Minority Leader has raised almost $2 million so far this year and has a cool$8.6 million on hand. (Washington Post)
- Hundreds of hill staffers have locked their personal twitter accounts in response to last week's news that LegiStorm was aggregating them for a new product, StormFeed. (POLITICO)
- With Congress eyeing an overhaul of the tax-code the politicians likely to have major influence over the proceedings are making it clear that they intend to do some of the negotiating in secret, despite publicly stating that they plan to lead an "open and transparent" process. (The Hill)
- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie might not have any major competition for his reelection bid, but the potential candidate for the 2016 GOP nomination has attracted some negative attention from an outside spending group. One New Jersey is slated to spend $500,000 over two weeks on ads attacking Christie's record. (POLITICO)
- Yesterday a Senate Judiciary subcommittee heard testimony on campaign finance laws, specifically finding out why they have proven so hard to enforce recently. (NPR)
Progressives campaign online, on paper and on the Hill against chained CPI
Liberal groups have launched a multifaceted campaign to oppose a Social Security cut expected to be included in the president's budget Wednesday, coordinating online activism, old-fashioned petition signing and traditional lobbying. It's an all-hands-on-deck approach in an attempt to send a loud message to the administration, and to congressional Democrats.
Continue readingObama taps Romney donors for labor board
Whether it's a sign of post-partisanship or sheer exasperation is hard to say, but two of the three nominees that President Barack Obama today tapped for seats on the National Labor Relations Board donated to the Republican who wanted to take his place.
Harry I. Johnson donated $1,500 to Mitt Romney's unsuccessful presidential campaign last year and Philip Miscimarra gave Romney $1,000, according to data downloaded from Sunlight's Influence Explorer.
Both are Republican labor attorneys who, while not prolific donors, have also made other contributions to GOP committees. To view Johnson's donations, click here ...
Continue readingWhy and how does technology matter?
A few weeks ago, our colleagues at the World Bank Institute held a highly informal and very motivating discussion on opening... View Article
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