From OMB Watch:
Last night, as expected, the Senate passed the $3.1 billion FY 2010 Legislative Branch appropriations bill by a vote of 67-25. Final passage of the bill included Sen. Coburn’s amendment requiring all senators to disclose their yearly expenditures in a publicly searchable online format. The Senate approved the amendment by voice vote.
Archive of posts filed under the Legislative Efforts category.
Sen. Coburn Wants You to Examine His Records UPDATED
Coburn amendment would require online expenditures
From The Hill:
The Senate may soon require members of the upper chamber to have their office expenditures posted online if an amendment put forward by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Monday passes.
The amendment is attached to the Legislative Branch’s appropriations bill, which could see a vote as early as Monday evening.
FRPAA re-introduced in the Senate
From Public Knowledge:
On June 25, Senators John Cornyn and Joe Lieberman re-introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA, S.1373) in the Senate.
This is an important development. FRPAA would essentially extend the NIH open-access policy across the federal government. Most federally-funded researchers would be required to deposit their peer reviewed manuscripts in a suitable open [...]
Electronic disclosure bill gains support
From Politico:
The Senate is finally standing on the cusp of the electronic age.
A few weeks after Speaker Nancy Pelosi mandated that House expense reports be published online, the Senate is considering going digital with its own expenditures, and there are serious negotiations to finally pass a bill that would also mandate Senate fundraising reports be [...]
Senate OKs block of alleged abuse photos
From CNN:
The Senate passed by unanimous consent Wednesday a bill (S. 1285) that would prevent the release of controversial photos of alleged U.S. abuse of prisoners and detainees.
The bill, sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Independent, and Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, had originally been part of the war funding supplemental bill passed [...]
Read the Bill Legislation Introduced in House
From Sunlight Foundation:
Reps. Baird and Culberson introduced legislation today that would shine more sunlight on the most fundamental work of Congress. Their bill, H. Res. 554, would require that all non-emergency legislation be posted online, in its final form, 72 hours before consideration. The bill is not a panacea for all that ails Congress, but [...]
Warner, Martinez and Brown Introduce TARP Transparency Act
Press Release:
U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Mel Martinez (R-FL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced legislation (S. 910) today to increase transparency in the use of the $700 billion appropriated through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to banks and other financial companies. The TARP Transparency Act directs the U.S. Department of the Treasury [...]
Congress revives bill that may force disclosure of Bush library donor names
From the Guardian:
George Bush favours guarding the names of donors to his presidential library in Dallas, but Congress has revived a bill that would require him to identify some of them.
The proposal, pending in the Senate after the House passed it in January, does not cover contributions Bush received during his presidency. But if it [...]
House Members Push Supreme Court Toward Transparency
From Law.com:
The annual House hearing called to consider the Supreme Court’s budget request began with its usual rituals Thursday morning. Members of Congress and members of the Court — Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer this time around — praised the occasion as a historic meeting of two branches of government. “A rare opportunity” for the [...]
Lieberman Improves on CRS Resolution
From the Center for Democracy and Technology:
In what has come to be a bit of a tradition, Senator Lieberman has introduced a resolution in the Senate to put non-confidential Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports online. A good bi-partisan group including Senators McCain (R-AZ), Leahy (D-VT), Feingold (D-WI), Harkin (D-IA), Collins (R-ME), and Lugar (R-IN) have [...]