Here is Thursday's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup: Super Committee
- A bipartisan bill aimed at increasing the transparency of the Super Committee was introduced Wednesday by Reps. Renacci, Loebsack, and Quigley. (The Hill)
- Lobbyists from all sides are targeting the Super Committee, looking to avoid being subjected to deep spending cuts as the committee tries to reduce $1.5 trillion from the federal budget. (Politico)
- At least nine of the twelve Super Committee members have campaign fundraisers lined up for this fall, including one fundraiser scheduled for the night before the committee's first meeting. (Washington Post)
- Many federal websites are not up to par, with almost a quarter being unreachable and only a third using modern content management systems, according to a newly released data analysis. (techPresident)
- The SEC has ordered its enforcement staff to stop destroying investigative records. (Washington Post)
- $40.3 million in social security benefits have been paid to deceased people since 2008, according to a Social Security IG report. (POGO)
- The White House's revolving door ban and stringent lobbying rules are having the opposite of their intended effect and actually pushing public sector groups away from more disclosure, according to a report released by the Center for Public Integrity. (Politico)
- Business groups and lobbyists continue to argue that a temporary tax break on foreign earnings could boost the U.S. economy and create jobs. (The Hill)
- The now-bankrupt solar energy firm Solyndra sent representatives to the White House to meet with administration officials on numerous occasions between March 2009 and April 2011. (Yahoo!)
- The Kuwait government repeatedly lobbied the U.S. State Department on behalf of First Kuwaiti, the company responsible for the problematic construction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, according to a newly released Wikileaks cable. (POGO)
- The Air Transport Association has hired former Bush Administration senior lobbyist Christine Burgeson. (National Journal)
- Google Plus is not yet an effective tool for government agencies to add to their social network presence. (Government Technology)
- White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is hosting a Twitter town hall on Friday to answer questions from @WhiteHouse followers who applied to attend via web form. (techPresident)
- Companies that keep their political spending hidden from shareholders have less market value, according to a research report released by Harvard law and Public Citizen. (Federal Times)
Super Committee members’ past votes clue to future action
As the Joint Select Committee on Debt Reduction charged with finding $1.5 trillion in savings in the federal budget begins its work in earnest, a look at past votes on money matters by the lawmakers that are part of this powerful group provides clues to how they’ll approach their task.
Many of these lawmakers’ votes on budget resolutions past, bailouts, stimulus, health care, and defense spending are party line, or, in the case of much of the military spending, unanimous.
Sen. Max Baucus, D., Mont., however, has stepped across the aisle on several key occasions. In 2001, when ...
Continue readingBipartisan Bill Would Expose Efforts to Influence Super Committee
Representatives Loebsack (D-IA), Quigley (D-IL) and Renacci (R-OH) introduced the Deficit Committee Transparency Act today, an important bill that would... View Article
Continue readingAgency Responses to House Oversight Committee’s Survey Show Excessive Manual Data Entry
Yesterday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released agency responses to a survey on agencies’ internal financial management... View Article
Continue readingLabs Update: September 2011
Summer vacation is over and it's back to school. Read on to see what we've been up to over the past month, including irradiating babies with thousands of IR beams!
Continue readingSunlight Live to cover the hidden influence in Obama jobs address
This Thursday at 7 p.m. President Barack Obama is set to address Congress and the nation when he’ll unveil his latest plan to create jobs. Already, a preview of the speech shows proposals consistent with the positions of influential groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO. Both groups have spent millions to influence elections and policies. With that in mind, the Sunlight Foundation will cover the speech with live video, data and commentary at sunlightlive.com.
Some of the glimpses into Obama's plan were provided by the president himself during a Labor Day ...
Continue readingSunlight Live to cover first “Supercommittee” hearing
After a quick summer recess, Congress returned this week with the newly formed “Supercommittee” scheduled to hold its first debt reduction meeting this Thursday at 10:30 a.m. EST. Unlike the debt negotiations held earlier this summer, the Supercommittee meetings will be conducted openly and we’ll be there to provide live fact checking, context and analysis so you can better understand the tanlged web of money and politics and how it relates to these meetings.
Although it is not yet known if the first hearing will be televised of livestreamed online, we will have reporters in the room ...
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 9/7/2011
Here is Wednesday's rainy look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup: Super Committee
- Sarah Kuehl, a veteran Senate Budget Committee staffer, has been selected to serve as deputy staff director for the Super Committee. (National Journal)
- It will be "very, very hard" for the Super Committee to come to an agreement, according to Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyle (R-AZ). (Politico)
- Google is arguing that the Interior Department failed to conduct sufficient research before choosing Microsoft for a $20 billion federal cloud contract. (National Journal)
- After months of delay and millions in cost, Performance.gov is up and running, but is lacking substantive data. (Federal Times)(Federal Computer Week)
- Richard Cordray, nominated to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will be considered by the Senate Banking Committee. (Executive Gov)(Market Watch)
- Rep. Shelley Berkley is pushing against accusations that her relationship with her husband, a kidney specialist, has created conflicts of interest. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
- The D.C. Open Government Coalition (DCOGC) obtained résumés of over 60 top political appointees in Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s administration that were previously withheld under FOIA. (DCOGC)
- A review of how agencies manage their business and accounting information technology systems indicates that not enough data is being publicly released, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). (Next Gov)
- A year after being warned that it could be violating federal law, the SEC is still illegally destroying records of closed enforcement cases, according to a whistleblower. (Washington Post)
- Federal agencies often use manual processes to transfer information between their IT management systems, according to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. (Federal Computer Week)
- He Said, She Said is a web application that screen scrapes and parses PDFs of local government meeting minutes into readable text and usable data. (techPresident)
- Opinion: David Perera writes that federal fear of open source technology causes the government to avoid cost saving opportunities. (Fierce Government)
- Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is having a one-on-one meeting with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt Wednesday. (National Journal)
- The lobbying firm BGR Government Affairs has hired Erskine Wells, deputy chief of staff to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS.). (The Hill)
- A campaign staffer handling the finances of top California Democrats allegedly embezzled over $600,000 from a state assemblyman. (Roll Call $)
- Nebraska has voted to approve a fund to reimburse the governor's spouse for expenses resulting from his or her position as first spouse that won't conflict with state gift and contribution laws. (Lobby Comply Blog)
- Cook County, Illinois is setting a high standard for local open government initiatives with Look at Cook. (O'Reilly Radar)
- Kentucky's ethics commission has issued recommendations for reforming the state's ethics code. (Lobby Comply Blog)
- At least 17 countries are participating in the Open Government Partnership, an international coalition working to increase transparency and open government around the world. (techPresident) The number may now be as high as 22 participating countries at the partnership's launch. (Huffington Post)
Donors to Senate GOP super committee members seek tax cuts, tax breaks
The Club for Growth, which advocates making permanent some tax cuts and eliminating entirely others that, over just two years, would amount to more than $765 billion in lost revenues over two years, is a top donor to two of the three Republican Senators on the Joint Select Committee on Debt Reduction--the super committee. Other top donors include a hedge fund run by a top Republican donor that invests in, among other things, defaulted debt of sovereign nations, corporations trying to shield income earned overseas from U.S. taxes, and utility firms seeking to avoid regulation of greenhouse gases.
As ...
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 9/6/2011
Here is Tuesday's look at the [[short!]] week's transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup: Super Committee
- Nearly 100 registered lobbyists have worked for the 12 members of the super committee, and six current employees are former lobbyists. (National Journal)(Washington Post)
- Netflix's global expansion has been accompanied by an enlargement of its DC lobbying and policy staff. (Washington Post)
- BP America has selected former Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell as its head of communications. (Politico)
- Google has launched a website that allows users to post and vote for questions in anticipation of the upcoming GOP debate, which will be held on September 22nd in Orlando, Florida. (Mashable)
- The digital citizen engagement platform Change by Us has been up and running in New York City since July, and will be launched in Philadelphia and Seattle this fall. (Government Technology)
- A news app developer at The Chicago Tribune is moving to Tyler, Texas, and has decided to hack city data to create sustainable and valuable community projects. (O'Reilly Radar)
- The Georgia state ethics commission has named a lobbyist as its new executive director. (Atlantic Journal-Constitution)
- The Norwegian Labour Party is leading online Norwegian campaign politics with a strategy centered on eCanvassing. (techPresident)
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