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

News Roundup:

• WhiteHouse.gov will be offering visual aids during President Obama’s State of the Union this evening. (Tech President)
• Democratic Sens. Tom Udall of New Mexico, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Tom Harkin of Iowa are unsatisfied with the scaled down rules package proposed by Senate leaders. They are instead pushing for the adoption of their proposal by a simple majority of 51 senators rather than the usual 67 required for rules changes, using a legislative tool known as the “constitutional option.” (Politico)
• The U.S. Office of Special Counsel found that George W. Bush administration officials likely violated the federal Hatch Act during the 2006 election cycle, namely by having on-duty staff members coordinate the official travel of political appointees in the Bush administration to assist in Republican election campaigns. (Roll Call $)(Washington Post)
• Reps. Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings are in disagreement about Cummings’ claims that Issa is withholding documents from the minority and issuing subpoenas unilaterally. (Politico)(Government Executive)
• GOP Freshman Rep. David Rivera (FL) is facing ethical investigations into his finances and campaign records. (Politico)
• Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has amended 13 years’ worth of disclosure reports to include his wife’s income. He contends that he did not originally include her information based on a misunderstanding of the disclosure directions. (Politico)(New York Times)
• The Internal Revenue Service has come out with a new free phone application, IRS2Go, which allows taxpayers to track their tax refunds and get tax tips from the IRS. (Washington Times)
• Alaska has launched AKredistricting.org, joining other states who are trying to use online tools to make their redistricting processes more transparent. (Tech President)
• THOMAS is an incredibly valuable tool, but there are areas of information that other sites use and enhance. (Library of Congress blog)
• The economics of E-government may not be as simple as they seem. While online services may save government money and even create new revenue streams, they also may generate new costs. (Government Technology)
• Carol M. Browner, President Barack Obama’s top energy and environmental adviser, is leaving the White House. (Politico)
• Republican former Sen. George Allen has officially decided to make a play for his old Virginia seat, potentially running against Democratic Sen. Jim Webb. (Washington times)
• Whistleblowers and the Obama administration are being credited with helping federal agents recover $2.5 billion from health care fraud judgments. (Federal Times)
• The Obama administration is strongly opposed to GOP legislation that would end federal funding of presidential campaigns. (The Hill)

• Luigi Montanez announced the launch of Stream Congress, a real-time data stream that gives users a quick look into what exactly members of Congress are up to. (Sunlight Labs Blog)
• Paul Blumenthal began the day with a few transparency headlines including former Sen. Evan Bayh’s move to Wall Street, lobbying during State of the Union, and more. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Paul Blumenthal reported that former Senator Evan Bayh is joining Apollo Global Management as a senior advisor with a role in public policy. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Daniel Schuman posted a copy of the letter from the Sunlight Foundation and Main Street Insider that calls upon the House of Representatives to improve how it makes floor and committee videos available online. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Paul Blumenthal closed the day with transparency headlines including GE’s negative tax rate, Rep. Waxman’s suggestions for new Oversight chair Rep. Issa, and more. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Take a look at the previous day’s transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency related events. (The Open House Project)

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:

• Get a look at the 2010 revenues for major lobbying groups as compared to their 2009 revenues. (The Hill)
• A new government database that tracks contractor misconduct and performance, previously available only to federal officials, is expected to be made public by April 15. (Government Executive)
• While the Senate is still far from agreement on how to change filibuster rules, there has been some bipartisan cooperation in working towards ending secret holds and streamlining the confirmation process. (Politico)
• The Senate remains in limbo as Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell continue to be unable to come to an agreement about committee ratios. (Roll Call $)
• Roll Call identified ten Members to watch in the 112th Congress including Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Fred Upton (R-MI) as well as Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Patty Murray (D-WA). (Roll Call $)
• Consumer Watchdog asked Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) to bring Google CEO Eric Schmidt before the Oversight committee to investigate whether Google has benefited inappropriately from ties to the administration. (Politico)
• Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, hopes to cut costs by decreasing the number of advisory committees. (Federal Computer Week)
• As the new chairman of the Judiciary Commitee’s Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet panel, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) plans to target net neutrality, patent reform and copyright enforcement. (Politico)
• NASA, the White House, and the Army get top scores for digital media competence, while the General Services Administration is “challenged” and Interior and Commerce departments are “feeble,” according to a recent study. (Federal Computer Week)
• The Securities and Exchange Commission has been remiss in posting reports by its inspector general that probe employee behavior in such areas as conflicts of interest, misuse of travel funds and retaliation against whistleblowers. (Government Executive)
• Daniel Mulhollan, director of the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress, will retire in April. (Roll Call $)
• Melanie Sloan has changed her mind and decided to remain Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington rather than join Clinton administration lawyer Lanny Davis in a private law firm. (Roll Call $)
• Politico’s daily debate today focuses on the conflict surrounding Scalia’s potential conflict of interest caused by his choice to speak at a Tea Party Caucus event. (Politico)
• Talk radio is having a huge impact on the way Congress operates based on how many listeners hear the message of major radio personalities. (Roll Call $)
• Opinion: Rep. Henry Waxman claims that if done correctly, congressional oversight can improve the way all levels of government operate. (Politico)
• Opinion: Sen. Mike Enzi suggests that ending the filibuster would be a serious blow to the democratic process. (Politico)
• Opinion: Sen. Claire McCaskill emphasizes the importance of getting rid of secret holds. (Huffington Post)

• Nicole Aro announced Sunlight’s intentions to fiercely advocate for greater transparency and disclosure around lobbying with the first draft of the Real Time Online Lobbying Transparency Act at PublicMarkup.org. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Paul Blumenthal began the day with several transparency headlines, highlighting Ellen Miller’s statement on the one-year anniversary of Citizens United, PublicMarkup.org, Rep. David Rivera’s financial improprieties, and more. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Nancy Watzman described the difficulty in obtaining financial public information on the six month anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Lisa Rosenberg reported that the Federal Election Commission marked the one-year anniversary of the Citizens United decision by failing to do anything to provide better disclosure of runaway secret campaign spending. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• James Turk announced the Sunlight Labs virtual office hours on irc.freenode.net at 3pm on Friday, January 28th. (Sunlight Labs Blog)
• Joshua Ruihley included links mentioned from last week Sunlight Labs Lunch, including Knight News Challenge, ScraperWiki, DBpedia, and more. (Sunlight Labs Blog)
• Take a look at the previous day’s transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency related events. (The Open House Project)

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:

• The US Chamber of Commerce, combined with the US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, spent $131.5 million on lobbying in 2010 – a 9 percent decline from its 2009 lobbying expenditures. (The Hill)(Roll Call $)
• A group of campaign-finance reform advocates, led by Common Cause, has organized events around the country to protest the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission. (Wall Street Journal)
• House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa revealed a new website – americanjobcreators.com – where citizens can submit which regulations they find limiting. (The Hill)
• Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) resurrected a bill that would eliminate automatic cost-of-living salary increases for Members in the House. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) hopes to do the same in the Senate. (Roll Call $)
• Jeffrey Immelt, the Chief Executive Officer of General Electric, is expected to be named chairman of the new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. (The Hill)
• Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced Maj. Gen. Susan Lawrence as the new Army Chief Information officer, replacing Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson. (Next Gov)
• Don Tapscott, co-author of the new book Macrowikinomics, talks about the Obama Administration’s open-government initiative and looks at what they should do next. (Next Gov)
• Three Democratic Senators wrote a letter urging Speaker Boehner to pursue legislation repealing 1099, an unpopular tax reporting provision in the health care reform law. (Roll Call $)
• Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will deliver the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. (Washington Post)
• Facebook executive Adam Conner says that agencies are missing the major benefit of social networks by focusing more on output rather than the amount and quality of feedback from users. (Federal Computer Week)

• Ellen Miller marked the one-year anniversary of the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision by looking at how following the money has changed over the past year. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Paul Blumenthal began the day with transparency headlines including the new 4th quarter lobbying disclosure reports, Office of Congressional Ethics and Supreme Court news, and more. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Paul Blumenthal commented on former congressman and current lobbyist Vic Fazio’s encouragement to Congress to listen to lobbyists. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Paul Blumenthal reported that Chinese companies have begun to sign lobbying firms and register under the Lobbying Disclosure Act to lobby Congress and the Executive Branch. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Zubedah Nanfuka included the weekly round-up of transparency bloggers, this time focusing on bloggers from Vermont, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Paul Blumenthal closed the day with transparency headlines from Election Law Blog, Politico, Economist, and Tom Toles. (Sunlight Foundation Blog)
• Jeremy Carbaugh released a new version of mediasync for Django. (Sunlight Labs Blog)
• Take a look at the previous day’s transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency related events. (The Open House Project)

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:

• House leaders reappointed the Office of Congressional Ethics’ eight-member board with former Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL) as chairman. (Roll Call $)(Politico)
• The Center for Responsive Politics and Remapping Debate just released the first listings in an interactive tracking tool that will allow the public to explore where outgoing senators and representatives from the 111th Congress are now employed. (Open Secrets)
• The Supreme Court heard arguments for Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T Inc. on Wednesday where the major issue is whether corporations have personal privacy rights and can keep documents from being released due to these rights. (The New York Times)(Project on Government Oversight)
• Common Cause filed a petition with the Justice Department advocating for an investigate into potential conflicts of interest on the part of Justices Scalia and Thomas when hearing campaign finance cases such as Citizens United. (New York Times)
• Top staff for House and Senate Republicans met in a closed-door session with energy industry interests (thought to include the American Petroleum Institute, National Mining Association, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce) to discuss a strategy for addressing EPA climate regulations. (Politico)
• House Republicans plan to use Twitter and YouTube to get citizens engaged with actual policy making decisions by introducing more programs such as YouCut. (Politico)
• Former Rep. Vic Fazio advises new members of Congress to develop relationships and learn from lobbyists. (Politico)
• Reports from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) are not posted anywhere online but were obtained through a FOIA request and are now being offered by the Project on Government Oversight. (Project on Government Oversight)
• The House Administration Committee has decided to allow Members to use their representational allowance for security upgrades in their district offices as long as they obtain clearance from the House Sergeant-at-Arm. (Roll Call $)
• The Office of Personnel Management reminds agencies that President Obama wants agency managers to discuss issues with labor-management partnership councils before making decisions on their own. (Federal Times)
• Seven retired admirals and generals hired as military consultants have chosen to leave their advisory roles instead of complying with new regulations requiring them to divulge outside income to avoid potential conflicts of interest. (Federal Times)(USA Today)
• A video is available of a panel of leading thinkers exploring WikiLeaks and how it matters in terms of information, security, first amendment rights, and innovation. (The Real News)

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:

• After announcing subcommittee leaders, (Federal Times) Rep. Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, will hold his first hearing on the foreclosure crisis and TARP. (Politico)
• Ranking Member of the Oversight committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), sent a letter urging Chairman Issa to heed President Obama’s call to elevate political discourse out of the muck and to avoid engaging in “silly” investigative probes. (The Hill)
• The Senate will likely address filibuster reform next week as part of a rules reform package suggested by Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin, Tom Udall, and Jeff Merkley. (Politico)
• President Barack Obama instructed federal agencies to modernize and improve the transparency of their regulation of industry and commerce, requiring among other things that agencies publish their rulemaking and enforcement actions on the Internet and to weed out outdated and unneeded rules. (Federal Computer Week)
• Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) is expected to join Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) in announcing retirement. (The Hill)(Politico)
• House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) do not plan to offer any early endorsements for the 2012 presidential campaign. (Politico)
• A new Justice Department unit, the Professional Misconduct Review Unit, will investigate allegations of misconduct by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility. (Washington Post)
• The General Services Administration has replaced Webcontent.gov with HowTo.gov to  improve customer service across the federal government. (Federal Times)
• The West Virginia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a gubernatorial election must be held this year to fill the remainder of Sen. Joe Manchin’s term, stating that the constitution was not meant to allow an acting Governor – one not elected to the position – to hold it for over a year. (Politico)
• Republicans suggest that the separation of checks and balances has become a modern and slightly incorrect division of labor where Congress has forgotten that it, too, needs to evaluate the constitutionality of laws. (Washington Times)
• Government officials discuss the benefits and difficulties introduced by social media, including the danger of rumors spreading like rapid fire and the necessity of having different voices on social media platforms so that citizens feel like they are engaging in a conversation, not just getting a press release in a different format. (Government Executives)