Some of Washington’s most powerful trade associations and big corporations are pushing to get an exemption from derivatives regulations mandated by the Dodd-Frank financial law—and House Republicans are planning to introduce legislation to do just that.
Under the umbrella of an ad hoc coalition, known as the Coalition for Derivatives End-Users, which is run by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Business Roundtable, among others, the coalition first weighed in during the debate over the financial law.
Since the law’s passage, the coalition has also been presenting its case with ...
Continue readingSunlight Live covers gas price hearing
Tomorrow, when the Committee on Natural Resources will hold a full committee hearing on gas prices and U.S. jobs, the Sunlight Foundation will spin up another instance of its data and live-blogging Sunlight Live platform to cover it live.
- Richard G. Newell; Administrator, U.S. Energy Information Administration
- Brenda Pierce; Energy Resources Program Coordinator, U.S. Geological Survey
- Gene Whitney ...
Sunrise (3/16/11)
SUBPRIME REVOLVING DOOR —Reuters: “A key advisor on housing policy to President Barack Obama has accepted an offer to head... View Article
Continue readingHouse Oversight Subcommittee Discusses Problems with USASpending.gov Data
On Friday, Ellen testified in front of the Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform, a subcommittee... View Article
Continue readingNuclear power plants live along fault lines
As recent events have shown in Japan, nuclear power plants are just as vulnerable to natural disasters as anything else. So here at Sunlight we were curious about the locations of domestic nuclear reactors. Using data from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Geological Survey, we generated the following map, which shows the location of the aforementioned reactors (there are 104 of them) vis-a-vis geological fault lines. We also included locations of significant historical earthquakes. Take a look and see if we might be vulnerable to a nuclear disaster if/when "the big one" hits, and click on ...
Continue readingSunshine Week: Optimism through the Clouds
After launching Sunshine Week with yesterday’s successful Advisory Committee on Transparency event, it’s a good time to reflect on positive... View Article
Continue readingSunrise (3/15/11)
NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP/NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN/NEVER GONNA TURN AROUND AND DESERT YOU —Roll Call: “House appropriators from... View Article
Continue readingPhotos from Today’s ACT Event
The committee room before the full crowd arrived. The Advisory Committee on Transparency‘s event earlier today was a huge success... View Article
Continue readingLexPop
I hope that readers will spare a second to check out LexPop. It's a contribution to a problem that a lot of you are interested in: how to allow citizens into the legislative process to a greater degree. There's no question that that old machinery that we use for transmitting public opinion to lawmakers and rulemakers suffers from some serious pathologies. So I've been very glad to see efforts like POPVOX and Expert Labs emerge.
LexPop is working in that same vein. I met Matt Baca, one of the people behind the project, at an event last month, and was struck by the ambition of his experiment. LexPop isn't working at the federal scale, but the scope of what they're doing is large: they're trying to write a state law from start to finish. What makes the effort really fascinating is that they've got a legislator interested, ready to engage with the process. It's going to be interesting to see how this unfolds.
Continue readingRevolving Door Update
–Former Rep. Steve Buyer registered his first client with his own eponymous lobbying practice. Last week his firm, Steve Buyer... View Article
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