Sunlight Foundation

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)