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:
- Pratt & Whitney and GE lead the advocacy efforts over an engine for a new U.S. fighter jet, dishing out the dollars to hire numerous consultants and lobbyists. (Roll Call $)
- Wall Street lobbyists are working to limit the new whistleblower protections through provisions such as internal reporting requirements. (CNBC)
- The Federal Communications Commission’s new online mapping site, IssueMap.org, aims to help the overwhelming amount of open government data make sense. (Federal Computer Week)
- Earl Devaney, chairman of the board in charge of relaying Recovery Act recipient reports, announced his support for multi-tier reporting, a method that would provide an increase in oversight compared to the traditional prime and sub-recipient reporting. (OMB Watch)
- The Environmental Protection Agency’s open-government e-rulemaking experiment, the Regulations.gov Exchange website, is drawing to a close, after drawing almost 20,000 online visits. (Federal Computer Week)
- The newly released Federal Cloud Computing Strategy outlines cloud computing’s benefits and relevant considerations, highlights government cloud computing case studies, and delineates the individual roles and responsibilities of government bodies in facilitating cloud adoption. (Information week)
- House Republican leadership, led by Majority Leader Boehner, is taking a zero tolerance approach to ethical transgressions. (Roll Call $)
- Opinion: Deregulation is not the way to create jobs and will not lead to a more transparent, efficient government. (Politico)
- Opinion: President Obama’s Executive Order calling for a review of regulations is a step in the right direction, as regulations need weeding every once in awhile. (Federal News Radio)
Relevant committee hearings scheduled for 2/14-2/18:
- None.
Relevant bills introduced:
- H.R. 653. A bill to amend the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to improve regulations dealing with the disclosure by financial institutions of nonpublic personal information, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Financial Services.
- H.R. 672. A bill to terminate the Election Assistance Commission, and for other purposes; to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
- H.J. Res. 26. A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to Congressional succession; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Transparency events scheduled for 2/14-2/18:
- Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee. The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Mon. 2/14. 12:30-1:30pm. 1150 Seventeenth Street, NW. Washington, DC.
- Reforming Congress: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The Advisory Committee on Transparency/The Sunlight Foundation. Mon. 2/14. 2:30pm. Rayburn House Office Building 2203.
- Is Dodd-Frank Constitutional? CATO Institute. Tues. 2/15. 12:00pm. 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW. Washington, DC 20001.
- Modernizing Federal Performance. Government Executive. Wed. 2/16. 8:00-10:00am. Ronald Reagan Building, The Rotunda. 8th Floor (North Tower). 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. Washington, DC.
- The Goldilocks Solution: Getting Systemically Important Financial Institution Regulation Just Right. The Brookings Institution. Thurs. 2/17. 10:00-11:30am. Falk Auditorium, The Brookings Institution. 1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW. Washington, DC.
