NEWS:

• A new discussion draft of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act was released this week, and a bill is expected to follow soon. (FedScoop)
• Project Open Data is already fielding submissions ranging from fixing broken links to policy suggestions. (FedScoop)
• The U.S. CIO said there are anecdotal examples of the economic benefits of open data, but  there is no definite tally of open data's impact. (FCW)
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NEWS:

• U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder declined to say whether there would be a review of the Department of Justice procedures on searching journalists' records. DOJ has been under scrutiny after the AP revealed the Department had seized more than two months of phone records. (NPR)
• The White House is pushing for a media shield bill that would protect reporters from certain penalties for not revealing confidential sources, among other things. (New York Times)
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said the Senate is working to confirm a commissioner for the IRS, which has lacked a confirmed head since November. (Roll Call)
• The acting commissioner of the IRS resigned on Wednesday at the request of President Obama, several days after an audit revealed the IRS targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny. (Washington Post)
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NEWS:

• As questions grow about why the U.S. Department of Justice secretly obtained two months of phone records from AP journalists, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said he was not the one to authorize the seizure. (The Hill)
• The SEC is considering whether publicly-traded corporations should have to disclose their political spending to shareholders. (The Hill)
• Senior executive, legislative, and judicial branch officials will have to fill out  personal finance reports by May 15. (Roll Call)
• Documents show it wasn't just staff in the IRS Cincinnati office who knew conservative groups were targeted for scrutiny -- details of the actions appear to have reached higher-ups in the agency by mid-2012. (Washington Post)
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NEWS:

• Responding to Friday's news that the IRS targeted conservative groups for more scrutiny, President Obama called for those responsible to be held accountable for the "outrageous" action. (Washington Post)
• House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi used the recent news about the IRS to make a point about her desire to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and change the campaign finance system. (Roll Call)
• Obama's advocacy group Organizing for Action has so far, despite nearly $5 million in fundraising and ties to the White House, failed to make a significant mark on federal policy. (Washington Post)
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NEWS:

• An audit shows the IRS gave more scrutiny to conservative groups or groups that criticized the government. The high-level decisions were made out of a Cincinnati field office. (Washington Post)
• Sheldon Adelson, who poured money into the 2012 elections, may be preparing to spend millions of dollars on the 2014 elections if his recent transfer of money from a super PAC to a non-profit is any indicator. (Roll Call)
• A user-friendly and restriction-free version of Maryland's code of Public Laws is available online and ready to be worked on by developers. (TechPresident)
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NEWS:

• President Obama issued an Executive Order calling for agencies to make internal lists of their data, share a list publicly of the data that is public, and consider what else might be made public. Obama said the move would help spark private-sector innovation. (Fedscoop, FCW, The Hill, Washington Post, Wired)
• The Campaign Legal Center and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the FEC about individuals who allegedly exceeded campaign contribution limits. (Roll Call)
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NEWS:

• It's official, reported lobbying by firms dedicated to the task was down almost 4% during the first quarter of 2013. Overall, lobbying appears to be down slightly more than 1% over the fourth quarter of 2012. (Roll Call)
• There has always been a healthy traffic flow between high level Washington operatives and high paying jobs on Wall Street, but recently volume has picked up significantly. Major banks including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, and more are turning to Washington for talent, reversing a trend that often saw policy makers looking to Wall Street for economic understanding. (POLITICO)
• There is a progressive revolt being staged against Facebook. A number of liberal groups are upset with the way that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's political group, FWD.us, is approaching the immigration debate and are pulling their ads from Facebook to show their disapproval. (Tech President)
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NEWS:

• The Information Technology Industry Council just picked up two high profile members. Samsung and Facebook join Apple, Google, Microsoft and more as members of the group, which will likely lobby on privacy, cybersecurity, and more for the companies. (The Hill)
• Lobbyists have been deregistering in waves over the past couple of years and there are a number of reasons why. Planning, PR, grassroots lobbying, and buying TV ads have all become more common place and don't have to be reported. Meanwhile, the Obama administration's open disdain for lobbyists has driven some more into the shadows.  (NPR)
• Lobbyists like to build up their contributions to help build their relationships with members of Congress. The trend is apparent with a number of freshman and their lobbyist bank-rollers. (Roll Call)
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NEWS ROUNDUP:

• President Obama is notable for his sports watching habits and recently influencers may be taking those predilections into account. Media strategists are offering clients who are looking to target White House officials ESPN as a prime spot for their advertising dollars. (POLITICO)
• After months of speculation President Obama tapped Chicago business baron and major campaign supporter Penny Pritzker to serve as the next secretary of commerce. Pritzker, who is worth north of $1 billion, has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the President's campaigns. (NPR)
• President Obama's FCC nominee is hearing some criticism from Senators over his past life as a cable and wireless company wireless and blog posts suggesting urging broad regulation in exchange for allowing the, failed, AT&T + T-Mobile merger to proceed. (The Hill)
• The White House released the first version of its We The People API to the public earlier this week. Every petition that garners more than 15o signatures will have its data made available in read-only format. Meanwhile, several interesting projects using We The People data emerged from the same hackathon that launched the API. (Fedscoop, Fedscoop)
• Florida passed the first major changes to its state ethics laws in nearly three decades this week. The state also passed new campaign finance regulations. Both moves can be seen as responses to the Sunshine State's low grades on the State Integrity Investigation. (Public Integrity)
• There are, hopefully, only a few more days of headlines from the wacky race to fill an empty South Carolina House seat. Yesterday held more good news for Elizabeth Colbert Busch, who is the beneficiary of more than $100,000 in late ad spending from the House Majority PAC. The PAC has now spent roughly $400,000 on the race. (Roll Call)
• Meanwhile, the newly minted Republican candidate for the open Massachusetts Senate seat has reaffirmed his opposition to "the peoples pledge" which aims to curb the influence of third party spending. Despite signing the pledge, and asking nicely for him to stop, Democratic candidate Ed Markey was the unwanted beneficiary of major outside outlays by a billionaire environmentalist. (Washington Post)