1) I was playing around with this Visual Budget Tracker over at The Daily Caller. Let me know if you... View Article
Continue readingCongress Should Make All Ethics Documents Available Online
An article in today’s Washington Post on the limits of conflict-of-interest rules laments that “the ethics system on Capitol Hill... View Article
Continue readingOOIDA spells it out
The Real Time ticker kicked out this new filing with the Federal Election Committee--the OOIDA PAC, which stands for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Political Action Committee. I googled "OOIDA" and found the group's Web site -- it's a remarkable model of candor:
OOIDA is just one of hundreds of representative groups vying for the attention of lawmakers and candidates. In recent years, OOIDAs Washington office staff has made great progress in reaching out to members of Congress and their staffs, educating them on the needs of professional truckers and securing their support. The association follows a strategic plan ...Continue reading
REPOST: Next Banking Committee Chair Has Ties to Financial Sector
Note: I wrote this over the summer when the possibility existed that Sen. Chris Dodd would be moving from the... View Article
Continue readingThe Final Health Care Bill. Online for 72 Hours. No Negotiation.
And as that debate unfolds, we're going to bump up against things we've simply never dealt with before. But in the debate of what's the right way to bring about transparency, one thing is eminently clear: the public and legislators alike MUST have time to read legislation before it's debated and be able to make their voice heard by their representatives as a result.
Continue readingDo Ray Mi FACA?
Yesterday, John and I met with the director of the fantastically-named Committee Management Secretariat, which oversees approximately 1,000 federal advisory... View Article
Continue readingFederal Agencies: How to Score an Easy Transparency Win by Monday.
Our "/Open" page watcher presently shows one agency, the "Department of Agriculture" having their OGD compliant /Open page launched. And while it is technically true that the Department of Agriculture has set up a /Open page and that it doesn't return a 404, the page is less than a placeholder. Someone there checked a box in the CMS that they probably shouldn't have. What's funny though is that with just a little more effort-- really just 5 minutes-- the Department of Agriculture could score itself a major transparency win. Let me explain.
Continue readingWelcome Back, Congress
The House and Senate worked more days in 2009 than they have in any year since 1995, when the Republican... View Article
Continue readingRebooting the FCC – a major first step
Today the Federal Communications Commission released “reboot the FCC,” an ambitious attempt to “improv[e] citizen interactions with the Federal Communications... View Article
Continue readingTARP Money Funds More Politically-Savvy Banks
Under-performing banks that are politically connected received more bailout funds, according to a study by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
According to the report, banks located in districts with House members serving on financial committees had a 26 percent increase in the funding they received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Likewise, bank executives holding a board seat at a Federal Reserve Bank increased their likelihood of receiving bailout money by 31 percent.
Applications for the largest TARP initiative, the Capital Purchase Program, are reviewed by the Federal Reserve--presenting a potential conflict of interest when bank ...
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