NEWS ROUNDUP:

• The Federal Communications Commission is looking to streamline the process inventors go through when testing their products on the airwaves. (Politico)
• The Office of Management and Budget is proposing consolidating federal guidance on grants and financial assistance payments. The move is aimed at reducing paperwork and fraud. (GovExec)
• President Obama is not the first person in his line of work to create a lobbying group that seeks to influence national policy. Former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton have gone down - or at least tried to travel - similar paths. (Politico)
• 2014 is on the minds of some of the biggest Republican Party donors, who are funding a group to protect incumbents and find new candidates for the upcoming U.S. Senate races. (New York Times)
• Changes to the U.S. Senate lobbying database over the weekend appear to have broken outside links to the documents, impacting watchdog groups like OpenSecrets.org. A staffer said the changes were made so documents would be available in HTML instead of PDF. (Public Integrity)
• Legislators in Missouri are looking to pass a bill that would require more advance notice of public meetings and increase the likelihood of facing penalties for violating the state's open meetings and records law. (News Tribune)
• Legislative aides in Virginia will receive the same privacy protections under the state's Freedom of Information Act as legislators under a new bill. (Watchdog.org)

NEWS ROUNDUP:

• Lobbying revenues have declined for the past two years along with the total number of registered lobbyists. These numbers might make it seem like K Street is slowing down, but unregistered lobbyists are keeping the influence world alive. (Roll Call)
• The administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy called for better data about government purchases at a recent panel discussion. (GovExec)
• Big donors are sometimes looking to buy their way to a diplomatic post. A new paper looks at how much money it takes to be appointed to certain positions. (New York Times)
• President Obama's campaign group continued to receive millions of dollars in contributions after the election, according to recent campaign finance disclosures. (Roll Call)
• NASA has launched a second International Space Apps Challenge encouraging developers to contribute code to the space agency's projects. (O'Reilly Radar)
• Texas has approved letting people make campaign donations through text messages, making it the third state to approve such an option. (Roll Call)

NEWS ROUNDUP:

• President Obama's decision to turn his campaign into a nonprofit that will accept unlimited corporate cash has drawn some criticism across the political spectrum. ProPublica looked into some of the other money-policy flip-flops Obama has made in the past few years. (ProPublica)
• The House Small Business Committee is aiming to make it easier for companies without lawyers or lobbyists to keep track of federal regulations that might impact them. (Roll Call)
• The Justice Department filed a brief asking the Supreme Court not to allow direct corporate campaign contributions. (Thomson Reuters)
• States and municipalities are increasingly creating positions for chief innovation officers, who are tasked with a wide variety of efforts related to better uses of technology. (GovTech)
• Government use of open source software as an alternative to proprietary software is increasing, and Government Technology explored some of the benefits and challenges of that move. (GovTech)
• Liberal and conservative groups are expressing concerns about the possible effects of proposed ethics reforms in Georgia that would label citizen volunteers as lobbyists, among other things. (Public Integrity)
• A bill has been introduced in Rhode Island that would prohibit lobbyists from making any political contributions to a member of the General Assembly during legislative session. (Lobby Comply Blog)
• A recent poll in Europe found a majority of people surveyed are concerned about the role of lobbyists and want increased transparency in the European Union. (Access Info)
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NEWS ROUNDUP:

• The Office of Congressional Ethics released its 2012 end-of-year report showing it forwarded 13 matters to the House Ethics Committee for review of 32 matters it opened. (Roll Call)
• Two cases before the House Ethics Committee are being held until the panel has its first organizational meeting and can officially begin taking action. (Roll Call)
• The Government Accountability Office issued a report calling for better interagency contracting practices in the federal government. (GovExec)
• The American League of Lobbyists has ended its contract with its lobbying company, which had lobbied on issues such as campaign finance laws and regulations. (Public Integrity)
• The FEC increased contribution limits on individuals for the 2014 election cycle. Individuals will be able to contribute up to $5,200 for a candidate and $32,400 for a national party committee. (Roll Call)
• Democratic members of Congress praised the House Majority PAC in a new video, saying the PAC helped them "fight back" against Republican PACs. (Public Integrity)
• Chris Vein, former deputy CTO of the White House, is settling into his new role as chief innovation officer for Global Information and Communications Technology Development at the World Bank. (GovTech)
• Carl Hoecker, who was inspector general for the U.S. Capitol Police, has been appointed as the Securities and Exchange Commission's inspector general. (ExecutiveGov)

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