Advisory Committee on Transparency

Here is Tuesday’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:

• Democrat Senators want to limit the scope of President Obama’s earmark ban to allow excepts such as appropriating money in the event of a national disaster while Republican Senators are advocating for a broad interpretation of the ban. (The Hill)
• Seaport officials across the nation are lobbying Congress to maintain funding for projects which have typically been funded through earmarks. (Roll Call $)
• The Continuing Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2011 contains a provision that would allow competitive sourcing – a practice used during the Bush administration but eliminated while Democrats were in control of Congress. (Federal Computer Week)
• The amount of contractor work waiting to be audited by the Defense Contract Audit Agency has almost quadrupled from 2006 to 2010 while agency staff has only grown by 20 percent during the same time period. (Federal Times)
• The Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) has contractors worried about how the newly public information will be used and if their proprietary data will be protected. (Washington Post)
• In an interview with Federal News Radio, innovation expert Michael Lennon explains how federal managers can cut spending through transparency and collaboration using an open gov mindset. (Federal News Radio)
• The Interior Department is being hailed as a model for other agencies as it has significantly consolidated IT management, decreasing the number of Chief Information Officers from 37 to one. (Federal Times)
• Sen. Lieberman (I-CT) has reintroduced his cybersecurity bill, this time without what critics deemed an Internet “kill switch” last year. (Federal Computer Week)
• The new Federal Cloud Computing Strategy estimates that the government could save $20 out of the $80 billion currently being spent on information technology by switching to cloud computing. (Federal News Radio)
• Nevadans question the accuracy of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s newly released National Broadband Map. (Government Technology)
• NASA has transitioned to a cloud platform called Nebula to store large amounts of data and allow it to be accessed form any computer, cutting costs and increasing storage capacities. (Federal News Radio)
• Washington lobbyists are advocating for Sen. Ensign to drop out of the reelection race. (Roll Call $)
• The Whistleblower Community submitted an open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder advocating for the removal of Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Glenn Leon, from his position as prosecuting attorney in the Department of Justice’s case against Scott J. Bloch. (Whistleblower Lawyer)

Here is Friday’s look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events.

News Roundup:

Here is Thursday’s look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events.

News Roundup:

• Some are criticizing the Obama administration for reneging on transparency after HUD told housing advocates that they must sign confidentiality agreements to continue participating in a rental policy working group. (Politico)
• House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) issued his first subpoena of the 112th Congress seeking documents related to Countrywide Financial’s VIP loan program, “Friends of Angelo.” He is pursuing an investigation into whether or not federal officials received special deals on mortgages and rental agreements. (Roll Call $)
• Sherron Watkins, the Enron whistle-blower, does not think the proposed whistle-blower protections mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act will be effective. (CFO)
• A recently released CRS report suggests that Congress does not have to remain a bystander when it comes to opening the federal government. (Tech President)
• White House spokesman Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, a senior aide, are leaving the White House to form a political consulting firm. (Politico)
• Agencies are planning to use one quarter of their requested $80 billion information technology budget in 2012 to move e-mail and other tools to the cloud. (Federal Times)
• The Government Accountability Office released its biannual High Risk List, detailing 30 federal programs that are in trouble. Lawmakers say this list serves as an oversight guide as they plan hearings and streamline agency programs. (Federal News Radio)
• Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) has a reputation for being the prince of pork, but he is quickly proving that as House Appropriations Chairman he is willing to slash spending. (Roll Call $)
• While criminal penalties for leaking classified information currently only apply to specific categories of classified information, legislation introduced this week by Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) seeks to expand the application of criminal penalties to include all classified information. (Project on Government Secrecy)
• As required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a national, interactive map identifying which communities do and do not have access to broadband is set to be released by the Commerce Department on February 17th. (National Journal)
• Opinion: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rep. Fred Upton say that proposed FCC regulations are a threat to online innovation and need to be included in President Obama’s review of burdensome regulations. (Politico) Despite criticism from House Republicans, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski maintained that the agency chose the right balance. (Washington Times)(Wall Street Journal)

Here is Wednesday’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:

• The Coalition for Derivatives End-Users, a coalition of 270 companies and business associations that use derivatives to hedge risk, has been lobbying  for exemptions as regulators implement the new financial reform law, arguing that non-financial companies should not be held to the same collateral standards as Wall Street firms. (Politico) Other members of the corporate community are also concerned with the financial regulations, arguing that strict regulations will be bad for business. (Washington Post)
• When Congress repealed section 9291 of the Dodd-Frank reform act to limit FOIA exemptions, they did not address section 404, which provides a FOIA exemption for “information, reports, documents, records, or information,” collected by financial agencies in their capacity of overseeing investment advisers. (Sunlight Foundation)
• K Street firms hired to lobby on behalf of Egypt, such as PLM Group, are still active after President Mubarak’s resignation. (Roll Call $)
• Take a look at President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal, broken down by how much agencies are requesting in 2012 compared to what they were allocated in 2010. (Federal Times)
• White House Legislative Affairs Director Phil Schiliro has stepped down from his position as White House liaison to serve as a senior adviser to Obama. (Roll Call $)
• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) have introduced legislation calling for an independent office to be established to investigate federal judges. (Wall Street Journal)
• Concerns regarding how the Interior Department manages national oil and gas resources have placed it on the Government Accountability Office’s biennial “High-Risk Report.” (Washington Post)
• Top officials at the General Services Administration say that the process for issuing federal acquisition rules has become too slow and uncoordinated and must be drastically reorganized. (Government Executive)
• Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra says one-quarter of the Information Technology budget will go towards cloud computing solutions. (Federal News Radio)
• President Obama is heading to the West Coast this week to meet with technology leaders in defense of allocations in his 2012 budget proposal for technological improvements across the country. (Next Gov)
• Secretary of State Clinton warned governments yesterday in a speech on Net Freedom that limiting access to the Internet would ultimately backfire, causing riots such as those seen in Egypt and Tunisia. (Washington Post)
• Former Senator Russ Feingold announced the launch of Progressives United, a political action committee aimed at promoting progressive ideals and supporting local, state, and national candidates. (Politico)
• New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) has cut funding for the Delaware Port Authority’s contract with the K Street firm, the American Continental Group. (Roll Call $)
• Opinion: Regardless of what you think of Rep. Issa, he was among the first to suggest divorcing the Minerals Management Service from the Interior Department. (Washington Post)

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)