Chairman Ben S. Bernanke - The Economic Outlook and the Federal Budget Situation, Before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. February 2, 2012

The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022. January 2012

Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gun-walking in Arizona, Report of the Minority Staff, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, January 2012

Presidential Signing Statements: Constitutional and Institutional Implications - Todd Garvey, Legislative Attorney. January 4, 2012

• Credit Rating Agencies - Alternative Compensation Models for Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations, GAO-12-240, Jan 18, 2012
• Dodd-Frank Act - Hybrid Capital Instruments and Small Institution Access to Capital, GAO-12-237, Jan 18, 2012
• Real Estate Appraisals - Appraisal Subcommittee Needs to Improve Monitoring Procedures, GAO-12-147, Jan 18, 2012
• Real Estate Appraisals - Survey of State Appraiser Regulatory Agencies (GAO-12-198SP, January 2012), an E-supplement to GAO-12-147 GAO-12-198SP

Sunlight Foundation: "Making good on part of the House of Representative's commitment to increase congressional transparency, today the House Clerk's office launched http://docs.house.gov/, a one stop website where the public can access all House bills, amendments, resolutions for floor consideration, and conference reports in XML, as well as information on floor proceedings and more. Information will ultimately be published online in real time and archived for perpetuity. The Clerk is hosting the site, and the information will primarily come from the leadership, the Committee on House Administration, the Rules Committee, and the Clerk's office. The project has been driven by House Republican leaders as part of an push for transparency. Important milestones include the adoption of the new House Rules in January 2011 that gave the Committee on House Administration the power to establish standards for publishing documents online, an April 2011 letter from the Speaker and Majority Leader to the Clerk calling for better public access to House information, a Committee on House Administration hearing in June 2011 on modernizing information delivery in the House, a December 2011 public meeting on public access to congressional information, and finally the late December adoption of online publication standards."

Unauthorized Appropriations and Expiring Authorizations, January 13, 2012: "As required, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports each January to the Congress on the following: All programs and activities funded for the current fiscal year for which authorizations of appropriations have expired, and; All programs and activities for which authorizations of appropriations will expire during the current fiscal year. Those requirements are specified in section 202(e)(3) of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974."

Via The Thicket: "National Conference of State Legislatures's (NCSL) new 2012 Presidential Primary Calendar, and its companion, a state-ordered table, 2012 State and Presidential Primary and Caucus Dates...Jennie Bowser created the lists and checked them against a multitude of official sources. She says, “this year, it was more complicated than ever to assemble this data.” Here are a few of the complications:

• State legislatures decide the dates of primaries (except in the states where parties do);
  
• Political parties decide the dates of caucuses (except in the states where the legislature does);
  
• The two major parties don’t always use the same dates in a given state;
  
• More states changed their dates this year than in any of the last three presidential cycles (and Texas’ date could still change); and,
  
• Some primaries are “beauty contests” only, designed to bring attention to a state but not to choose delegates to the national conventions where presidential nominees are officially selected.
  
• To understand all the vagaries in presidential nominating events, the National Association of Secretaries of State has just released a comprehensive report, NASS 2012 Presidential Primaries Guide. In it, you’ll learn the state-by-state details on how the date is chosen, how the primary is funded, who can vote in the primary, and where to find official results."

Men Rule • The Continued Under-Representation of Women in U.S. Politics, January 2012

EPIC: "Bloomberg News has reported that the Federal Trade Commission has expanded its antitrust investigation of Google to include Google's social networking service, Google+. The report comes after Google announced that it would include personal data gathered from Google+ in the results of users' searches, a move that led EPIC to urge the FTC to investigate the company. EPIC said that "Google's business practices raise concerns related to both competition and the implementation of the Commission’s consent order," referring to a settlement that the FTC reached with Google that establishes new privacy safeguards for users of all Google products and services and subjects the company to regular privacy audits. Google first confirmed the FTC’s antitrust investigation in June 2011. Recently, the Senate held a hearing on Google's use of its dominance in the search market to suppress competition, and EPIC urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google's use of Youtube search rankings to give preferential treatment to its own video content over non-Google content. For more information, see EPIC: Google/DoubleClick and EPIC: Federal Trade Commission."

National Infrastructure Bank: Overview and Current Legislation, December 14, 2011. "Several bills to establish a national infrastructure bank have been introduced in the 112th Congress. This report examines three such bills, the Building and Upgrading Infrastructure for Long-Term Development Act (S. 652), the American Infrastructure Investment Fund Act of 2011 (S. 936), and the National Infrastructure Development Bank Act of 2011 (H.R. 402). These proposals share three main goals:

• increasing total investment in infrastructure by encouraging new investment from nonfederal sources;
  
• improving project selection by insulating decisions from political influence; and
  
• encouraging new investment with relatively little effect on the federal budget through a mostly self-sustaining entity."

The U.S. Housing Market: Current Conditions and Policy Considerations, Federal Reserve White Paper submitted to Congress on January 4, 2012 - "The ongoing problems in the U.S. housing market continue to impede the economic recovery. House prices have fallen an average of about 33 percent from their 2006 peak, resulting in about $7 trillion in household wealth losses and an associated ratcheting down of aggregate consumption. At the same time, an unprecedented number of households have lost, or are on the verge of losing, their homes. The extraordinary problems plaguing the housing market reflect in part the effect of weak demand due to high unemployment and heightened uncertainty. But the problems also reflect three key forces originating from within the housing market itself: a persistent excess supply of vacant homes on the market, many of which stem from foreclosures; a marked and potentially long-term downshift in the supply of mortgage credit; and the costs that an often unwieldy and inefficient foreclosure process imposes on homeowners, lenders, and communities."

CRS: Changes in the Distribution of Income Among Tax Filers Between 1996 and 2006: The Role of Labor Income, Capital Income, and Tax Policy, Thomas L. Hungerford, Specialist in Public Finance, December 29, 2011

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission has approved a biennial report to Congress focusing on the use of the Do Not Call Registry by both consumers and businesses over the past two years, as well as the impact that new technologies have had on the Registry. As detailed in the report, the Do Not Call Registry now has more than 209 million active registrations, and more than eight million new phone numbers were registered in Fiscal Year 2011. During that time, approximately 35,000 sellers, telemarketers, and exempt organizations such as charities subscribed to access the Registry, paying fees totaling more than $13.7 million. The report concludes that since its inception, the Registry has successfully accepted consumer registrations and complaints, allowed businesses to obtain access to Registry data, and provided law enforcement with the tools needed to investigate complaints and bring appropriate actions."

Department of Defense Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies Academic Program Year 2010-2011, Report to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives, released December 27, 2011

U.S. Nuclear Cooperation with India: Issues for Congress, Paul K. Kerr, Analyst in Nonproliferation, December 15, 2011

Budgetary Effects of the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011, as Posted on the Website of the House Committee on Rules on December 22, 2011

EPIC: "Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Mike Lee (R-UT), Chairman and Ranking member of the Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, have sent a letter to FTC Chairman John Liebowitz, expressing concern about Google's business practices and the company's impact on competition in Internet search and commerce. In September, EPIC wrote to the FTC and described how Google biased YouTube search rankings to give preferential treatment to its own content following the acquisition of the Internet's largest video service provider. The EPIC letter preceded a Senate hearing on The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition? EPIC testified before the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee in 2009 on Google's growing dominance of essential Internet services."

2011 Lays Groundwork For Tax Reform, Makes Important Changes Impacting 2012: "2011 had been predicted to be a quiet year in federal tax news – as it landed between major tax legislation in 2010 and expected tax reform in 2012 – but the year brought many significant tax developments from the Obama Administration, Congress, the Treasury Department, the IRS, and the courts. President Obama signed bills enacting hiring incentives, repealing three percent government withholding, and more. Congress initiated a national conversation on the pros and cons of tax increases, tax reform, and deficit reduction, which will frame tax proposals for 2012 and beyond. The IRS issued a steady stream of much-needed guidance for businesses and individuals, ratcheted up its attention on tax compliance, particularly in the international area, and continued its multi-prong initiative on return preparer oversight. Meanwhile, the Tax Court and other federal courts handed down decisions of their own, impacting rules for many other taxpayers. This Tax Briefing provides a review of the key tax law developments of 2011 and more."

H.R. 1905 - Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2011

Response to Questions About the Effects of a Tax on Financial Transactions That Would Be Imposed by the Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act, December 12. 2011

Cost Estimate for H.R. 3630, Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011 - December 9, 2011

CRS - Congressional Lawmaking: A Perspective On Secrecy and Transparency - Walter J. Oleszek, Senior Specialist in American National Government, November 30, 2011

"The Legislative Branch Appropriations Act 2010 (P.L. No. 111-68) amended 2 U.S.C. 104(a), to require the posting of the semiannual report of the Secretary of the Senate on the Senate Web site. Since 1823, the Secretary of the Senate has published the semiannual statements covering the periods from October 1st to March 31st and April 1st to September 30th of each year. The first online report begins with the reporting period of April 1, 2011 to September 30, 2011. You may view the two volumes in a single file or in two separate files that correspond to the published version. The files have been digitally signed by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). The technology used to certify these documents allows GPO to secure the data integrity and provides users with assurance that the content is unchanged since it was disseminated by GPO.

Recent Studies Show EPA Air Rules Do Not Threaten Electric Reliability, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Democratic Staff, November 2011.

Presidential Policy Directive 8 and the National Preparedness System: Background and Issues for Congress, Jared T. Brown - Analyst in Emergency, Management and Homeland Security Policy, October 21, 2011

Legislative History of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act Public Law 109-435, James I. Campbell Jr.,
September 2007. Includes a summary of the evolution of the bill over 10 years, the public law, congressional debates, most recent committee reports (and related bills), and presidential signing statement. 1077 pages.

Testimony, Congressional Budget Office, Statement of Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director - Policies for Increasing Economic Growth and Employment in 2012 and 2013, before the Committee on the Budget, United States Senate, November 15, 2011

"FHFA Acting Director Edward J. DeMarco responded to a letter from numerous U.S. Senators [Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs - with a hearing scheduled for November 15, 2011] regarding executive compensation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Attached is the text of the letter...Losses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) have already resulted in more than $170 billion in taxpayer expense, and I consider it the most important part of my job to minimize any further taxpayer costs...By law, the conservatorships are intended to rehabilitate the Enterprises as private firms. Their officers are not public employees, and FHFA has used market compensation measures to target executive compensation at or below the median of comparable private sector positions at financial institutions roughly similar in size and/or complexity as the Enterprises."

Tax Reform Options: Promoting Retirement Security by Jack VanDerhei, Employee Benefit Research Institute: "Currently, the combination of worker and employer contributions in a defined contribution plan is capped by the federal tax code at the lesser of $49,000 per year or 100 percent of a worker’s compensation (participants over age 50 can made additional “catch-up” contributions). As part of the effort to lower the federal deficit and reduce federal “tax expenditures,” two major reform proposals have surfaced that would change current tax policy toward retirement savings:

• A plan that would end the existing tax deductions for 401(k) contributions and replace them with a flat-rate refundable credit that serves as a matching contribution into a retirement savings account.
  
• The so-called “20/20 cap,” included by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in their December 2010 report, The Moment of Truth, which would limit the sum of employer and worker annual contributions to the lower of $20,000 or 20 percent of income, the so-called “20/20 cap.”

News release: "Congressional websites are getting better, according to an analysis by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF). The nonprofit organization graded 618 congressional websites and found the most common grade moved from an F in the 111th Congress to a B in the 112th Congress. CMF has been grading congressional websites since 2001 and issues biannual Congressional Gold Mouse Awards for the best websites on Capitol Hill for each Congress. CMF conducted its analysis from June to September 2011...see the latest report - 112th Congress Gold Mouse Awards: Best Practices in Online Communications on Capitol Hill, [which] identified recent trends related to online communications in Congress, including:

• A significant number of House and Senate Member websites lacked basic educational and transparency features including: links to bills sponsored and cosponsored, voting records, and basic information on how a bill becomes a law.
  
• House Members taking office in January 2011 had significantly better websites than Senators taking office in January 2011, with 61% of new House Members receiving an A or B grade, compared to 31% of new Senators receiving a similar grade. Nearly half (46%) of new Senators received a grade of D or F, compared to 17% of new House Members.
  
• While there was general parity overall in quality of websites between Democrats and Republican Member websites, the best websites tended to be Democratic Members.
  
• View the full list of the 112th Congress Gold Mouse Award Winners

Discretionary Spending, October 26, 2011 - Testimony before the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, U.S. Congress

"This report, Analysis of Impacts of a Clean Energy Standard - October 2011 - responds to a request from Chairman Ralph M. Hall for an analysis of the impacts of a Clean Energy Standard (CES). The request, as outlined in the letter included in Appendix A, sets out specific assumptions and scenarios for the study. A CES is a policy that requires covered electricity retailers to supply a specified share of their electricity sales from qualifying clean energy resources. Under a CES, electric generators would be granted clean energy credits for every megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity they produce using qualifying clean energy sources. Utilities that serve retail customers would use some combination of credits granted to their own generation or credits acquired from other generators to meet their CES obligations. Generators without retail customers or utilities that generated more clean energy credits than needed to meet their own obligations could sell CES credits to other companies."

Presidential Nominating Process: Current Issues. Kevin J. Coleman, Analyst in Elections, October 6, 2011.

Options for Changing the Tax Treatment of Charitable Giving, October 18, 2011 - Testimony before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission testified today before the U.S. House of Representatives on the agency’s efforts to help address childhood obesity through its participation in the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children. The Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, David C. Vladeck, delivered the testimony on behalf of the FTC at a joint hearing held by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health and Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade. The testimony explains that the Interagency Working Group was convened in 2009 in response to a bipartisan effort led by Senator Tom Harkin and former Senator Sam Brownback. Congress charged the Working Group’s members – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FTC, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture – with developing nutrition standards for foods marketed to children and defining the scope of marketing to which those standards would apply. In response to this charge, the Working Group has been developing recommendations to Congress for voluntary principles to guide industry self-regulation. As the member agency with marketing expertise, the FTC’s role has been to develop workable parameters to define children’s marketing."

News release: "The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday requested public comment on a proposed regulation implementing the so-called "Volcker Rule" requirements of section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Section 619 generally contains two prohibitions. First, it prohibits insured depository institutions, bank holding companies, and their subsidiaries or affiliates (banking entities) from engaging in short-term proprietary trading of any security, derivative, and certain other financial instruments for a banking entity's own account, subject to certain exemptions. Second, it prohibits owning, sponsoring, or having certain relationships with, a hedge fund or private equity fund, subject to certain exemptions. The act also prohibits banking entities from engaging in an exempted transaction or activity if it would involve or result in a material conflict of interest between the banking entity and its clients, customers, or counterparties, or that would result in a material exposure to high-risk assets or trading strategies, in each case as defined by the rule. The act similarly prohibits banking entities from engaging in an exempted transaction or activity if it would pose a threat to the safety and soundness of the banking entity or to the financial stability of the United States. The proposal, which was developed jointly with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, clarifies the scope of the act's prohibitions and, consistent with statutory authority, provides certain exemptions to these prohibitions. It is anticipated these agencies will issue a comparable proposal today or in the near future."

News release: "Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, released a report today, Repatriating Offshore Funds: 2004 Tax Windfall for Select Multinationals, that found that the 2004 repatriation tax break that allowed U.S. companies to bring $312 billion in offshore earnings back to the United States at an extraordinarily low tax rate did not produce any of the promised benefits of new jobs or increased research expenditures to spur economic growth. The report looked at the top 15 repatriating companies and found that, instead of spurring jobs and economic stimulus, the tax break was instead associated with increased corporate stock buybacks and executive pay. The report also observed that the 5.25% tax rate created a competitive disadvantage for domestic businesses that chose not to engage in offshore operations or investments, and provided a windfall for multinationals in a few industries without benefiting the U.S. economy as a whole."

Present Law, Data, And Analysis Relating To Tax Incentives For Homeownership, The Joint Committee on Taxation, September 30, 2011, JCX-50-11

News release: "Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, together with 19 Members of Congress, today sent a letter to the Judicial Conference, requesting that the Conference follow the law and refer the matter of Justice Clarence Thomas's non-compliance with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to the Department of Justice. Throughout his entire tenure on the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas has checked a box titled "none" on his annual financial disclosure forms, indicating that his wife had received no income, despite the fact that his wife had in fact earned nearly $700,000 from the Heritage Foundation from 2003-2007 alone."

Intelligence Issues for Congress, Richard A. Best Jr., Specialist in National Defense, September 14, 2011

Obama Aims For $1.5 Trillion In New Tax Revenue To Reduce Deficit, September 21, 2011

House Committee on the Judiciary: Background on H.R. 1249, the America Invents Act: "On June 23 the House overwhelmingly approved HR 1249, the America Invents Act, by a vote of 304-117. H.R. 1249 updates our patent system to encourage innovation, job creation, and economic growth. The last major patent re­form was nearly 60 years ago. Since then, U.S. innovators have developed cell phones and launched the Internet. And yet the laws protecting the technologies of today are stuck in the past. The current system is bogged down by frivolous lawsuits and uncertainty regarding patent owner­ship. America’s innovators spend years and millions of dollars defending their claims to patent owner­ship. Meanwhile, our competitors are busy developing new products that expand their businesses and grow their economies. This year, for the first time, China is expected to become the world’s number one patent publisher, surpassing the U.S. and Japan in the total and basic number of patents. Our outdated patent system has become a barrier to innovation. We cannot expect America’s innovators and job creators to keep pace with the global marketplace with the patent system of the past. We need a system that ensures patent certainty, approves good patents quickly and weeds out bad patents effectively."

CRS - China’s Currency: An Analysis of the Economic Issues - Wayne M. Morrison, Specialist in Asian Trade and Finance; Marc Labonte Specialist in Macroeconomic Policy, August 3, 2011

Living Within Our Means and Investing in the Future - The President’s Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction, September 19, 2011

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comment on proposed amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule, which gives parents control over what personal information websites may collect from children under 13. The FTC proposes these amendments to ensure that the Rule continues to protect children’s privacy, as mandated by Congress, as online technologies evolve. The Commission proposes modifications to the Rule in five areas: definitions, including the definitions of “personal information” and “collection,” parental notice, parental consent mechanisms, confidentiality and security of children’s personal information, and the role of self-regulatory “safe harbor” programs."

President Proposes $447 Billion Jobs Package, Updated: September 15, 2011: "President Obama has challenged Congress to immediately pass the American Jobs Act of 2011 – a $447 billion jobs package, including payroll tax cuts and tax credits to encourage hiring, along with extended 100 percent bonus depreciation, which would be paid for by limiting deductions for higher income taxpayers and changing the taxation of carried interest. The President described his jobs package during a speech to a Joint Session of Congress on September 8 and unveiled the legislative text on September 12."

Confronting the Nation's Fiscal Policy Challenges, September 13, 2011. Testimony before the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, U.S. Congress

Estimated Impact of Automatic Budget Enforcement Procedures Specified in the Budget Control Act, September 12, 2011

President Obama's message to Congress, and the text of American Jobs Act of 2011

The Library of Congress - THOMAS: "This site was begun in September 2001 as a way of keeping the public readily apprised of legislation related to the terrorist attack on the United States that month. The selection, made by hand, is necessarily subjective, as the September 11th attack had a ripple effect on legislation in the second session of the 107th Congress, making boundaries difficult to draw. The site will not be updated after the conclusion of the 107th. Not included here are appropriations and authorization bills, which may include provisions relevant to our response to terrorism, but included are some bills related to bio-terrorism and not September 11th."

worldAtWork: Tracking Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Updated September 8, 2011: "On Wednesday, July 21, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The Act calls for sweeping reforms, not just for the financial services industry, but for all publicly-traded companies. With many of the provisions in this bill subject to forthcoming regulations and guidance, this page is dedicated to bringing you the most up-to-date information about regulations and guidance that have been issued that will affect the implementation of this bill."

NYT: Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount - "The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances."

News release: "A new publication from the Federal Trade Commission, Protecting Your Child’s Personal Information at School, advises parents how to limit the risks of identity theft. It also explains the federal Family Educational Rights Privacy Act, which protects the privacy of student records and gives parents of school-age children the right to opt out of sharing contact information with third parties. In addition, the publication advises parents to ask their child’s school about its directory information policy, to learn about privacy policies of sports or music activities not formally sponsored by the school, and what to do if their child’s school experiences a data breach."

"Creating a judicial pool for the 21st Century, one with intellect, fair-mindedness and integrity that resembles the nation that it serves, is a top priority for President Obama and his administration. In fact, the President’s nominations for federal judges embody an unprecedented commitment to expanding the racial, gender and experiential diversity of the men and women who enforce our laws and deliver justice...To better understand how the Senate delays are impacting American families and businesses, take a look at our infographic that explains the confirmation process and highlights the bottleneck."

"Country Reports on Terrorism 2010 is an annual Congressionally mandated report that provides an assessment of trends and events in international terrorism that transpired from January 1 to December 31, 2010. Besides filling a Congressional requirement, this publication aims to enhance the public’s understanding of the international terrorist threat. The report focuses on policy-related assessments, country-by-country breakdowns of foreign government counterterrorism cooperation, and contains chapters on WMD terrorism, State Sponsors of Terrorism, Terrorist Safe Havens, and Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The report also includes a statistical annex prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center. The statistics show more than 11,500 terrorist attacks occurred in 72 countries during 2010, resulting in more than 13,200 deaths. Although the number of attacks rose by almost 5 percent from the previous year, the number of deaths declined for a third consecutive year, dropping 12 percent from 2009. For the second consecutive year, the largest number of reported attacks occurred in South Asia and the Near East, with more than 75 percent of the world’s attacks and deaths occurring in these regions."

Privatization of GPO, Defunding of FDsys, and the Future of the FDLP, by jajacobs

WSJ: "A committee of 12 lawmakers -- three from each chamber and each party -- will try to find at least $1.2 trillion in deficit-reduction measures by the end of November. Nine of the members have been named so far."

“The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?” - Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. DATE: September 21, 2011

Sunlight Foundation: "The House Ethics Committee is responsible for investigating and making recommendations on the enforcement of House ethics rules. In an nod towards transparency, its reports and statements are published online -- but they are virtually unusable. The Committee publishes documents in an unsearchable PDF format, spreads them out over of 24 pages, and gives them impenetrable titles like "Statement of the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member." Search engines (like Google) cannot see the documents, and only the most patient will click on each link to see what's inside. We've taken all 120+ documents, made them searchable, and published them online in a database. Now every document from December 1998 until July 2011 can be searched -- at once. It's easy to find the 20 documents that refer to Rep. Rangel, or the 15 documents that refer to (former) Rep. DeLay, or anything else that you're looking for. The web tool DocumentCloud has made this all possible."

Budget Control Act of 2011 (Engrossed Amendment House - EAH)[S.365.EAH]. Pub. L. No. 112-25, 140 Stat. 240

EPIC: "The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to approve a bill that will require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to retain data on every customer to allow the government to identify and track their online activity for one year. EPIC Director Marc Rotenberg testified against the bill at the subcommittee hearing, and his arguments were cited by committee members including Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). After two days of deliberation, the bill was passed with an amendment to require ISPs to retain even more information: not only internet protocol addresses, but also customer names, addresses, phone records, type and length of service, and credit card numbers. This retention is a radical contradiction of the core American value that we are innocent until proven guilty, said Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT)."

Via FearLess: "...Earlier this week, President Obama called on Americans to reach out to Congress regarding the debt-ceiling debacle. And a lot of people made their voices heard. The day after Obama's televised speech, the Capitol's switchboard was overwhelmed with 40,000 calls per hour and email traffic swamped congressional servers to a near halt. We searched online for an official Twitter directory for the United States Congress, but we couldn't find an updated and easy-to-use directory that contained links to Congressional members' Twitter handles. So we rolled up our sleeves and built the damn thing ourselves. Below you will find an alphabetical list of states with names of U.S. Congressmen and women. Each name links to the elected official's Twitter page. It's simple and efficient. Which makes it the complete opposite of Congress' ability to reach a compromise."

Deficit Reduction: $586.112 billion - "The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) and Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) have closely examined the defense budget for waste, fraud, and abuse and for programs in which there are cheaper yet effective alternatives or in which cancellation or delay poses an acceptable level of risk according to national security experts. The following list details more than $500 billion in deficit reductions, including cuts to wasteful weapons systems, limits on out-of-control contract spending, and reforms to costly entitlement programs. All of the recommendations save taxpayers’ money and maintain our national security. All budget estimates are 10-year projections or less, based on government or credible academic sources. We chose conservative estimates to avoid overstating the scale of the potential deficit reduction."

Federal Disaster Assistance Budgeting: Are We Weather-ready?, Testimony by Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, July 28, 2011

ACLU news release: "Today, we’re releasing a report, Drastic Measures Required: Congress needs to Overhaul U.S. Secrecy Laws and Increase Oversight of the Secret Security Establishment...we lay out the scope of the problem and analyze its unfortunate consequences for the operation of our government, for our national security, and for our democracy at large. The report asserts that Congress must overhaul U.S secrecy laws and increase its oversight of the secret security establishment in order to rein in the out-of-control secrecy that is poisoning our democracy. We present a number of detailed recommendations for how, exactly, Congress should act to reform the “state secrets privilege,” strengthen Congressional oversight of national security programs, and regulate the use of classification by the executive branch."

Library Journal: "On July 22, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2551, the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2012 by a vote of 252 - 159. Unless the Senate acts, the bill would reduce GPO's budget for FY12 by 20 percent to $108.1 million. Within the GPO budget is the appropriation for the Office of Superintendent of Documents' Salaries and Expenses, which funds the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). This appropriation would be reduced 16 percent, to $33.5 million, eliminating funding for the Federal Digital System (FDsys)."

• Department of Veterans Affairs: Issues Related to Real Property Realignment and Future Health Care Costs, by Lorelei St. James, director, physical infrastructure issues, before the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. GAO-11-877T, July 27, 2011
• Disability Insurance: SSA Can Improve Efforts to Detect, Prevent, and Recover Overpayments. GAO-11-724, July 27, 2011
• Financial Education and Counseling Pilot Program. GAO-11-737R, July 27, 2011
• DOD Financial Management: Numerous Challenges Must Be Addressed to Improve Reliability of Financial Information, by Asif A. Khan, director, financial management and assurance, before the Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, Senate Committee on Armed Services. GAO-11-835T, July 27, 2011
• Economic Development: Efficiency and Effectiveness of Fragmented Programs Are Unclear, by William B. Shear, director, financial markets and community investment, before the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. GAO-11-872T, July 27, 2011.
• Traffic and Vehicle Safety: Reauthorization Offers Opportunities to Extend Recent Progress, by Susan Fleming, director, physical infrastructure issues, before the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. GAO-11-866T, July 27, 2011

Roll Call reported late in the evening on July 26, 2011 that Congressional websites and phone systems crashed after President Obama's speech on the debt ceiling. So via USA.gov, the following links to help you communicate with your elected officials,

• contact your U.S. Senator
  
• contact your Representative in the U.S. House
  
• contact the President
  
• contact other government officials

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission testified today on consumer protection issues relating to the rent-to-own industry. The testimony described the agency’s role in enforcing laws relating to financial issues, provided background on the rent-to-own industry, and described key findings of a 2000 report published by the FTC’s Bureau of Economics on the rent-to-own industry. The testimony was presented by Bureau of Consumer Protection Deputy Director Charles Harwood, who told the House of Representatives Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee that the rent-to-own industry – known as RTO – consists of dealers that rent products to consumers, with an option to buy. Typically, RTO agreements do not require a down payment or credit check, and provide consumers with immediate access to household goods for a weekly or monthly payment. They may be attractive to consumers who cannot afford a cash purchase, may be unable to qualify for traditional credit, or who want a product right away without the need to pay the full purchase price."

Kaiser Family Foundation: "Many of the debt-reduction plans being considered by Congress and the Administration include proposals that would achieve substantial savings from the Medicare program over time. This updated side-by-side summary compares the key Medicare provisions found in five major debt-reduction plans put forward by the White House, Congress and independent, bipartisan commissions. The five plans are: the President's Framework for Shared Prosperity and Shared Fiscal Responsibility; the House Concurrent Budget Resolution; the Senate "Gang of Six" Proposal; the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (Bowles-Simpson); and the Bipartisan Policy Center Debt Reduction Task Force (Domenici-Rivlin). The summary also includes brief descriptions of Medicare proposals in other deficit reduction proposals from American Enterprise Institute; Cato Institute; Center for American Progress, Sen. Tom Coburn; Congressional Progressive Caucus; Dr. Bill Galston and Ms. Maya MacGuineas; Heritage Foundation; Institute for America's Future; Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Sen. Coburn; Our Fiscal Security; Dr. Alice Rivlin and Chairman Paul Ryan; Republican Study Committee; Roosevelt Institute Campus Network; and Chairman Ryan."

• Children's Television Act: FCC Could Improve Efforts to Oversee Enforcement and Provide Public Information, GAO-11-659, July 14, 2011
• Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands - Status of Transition to Federal Immigration Law, GAO-11-805T, July 14, 2011
• Defense Logistics: Oversight and a Coordinated Strategy Needed to Implement the Army Workload and Performance System, GAO-11-566R, July 14, 2011
• DOD Civilian Personnel: Competency Gap Analyses and Other Actions Needed to Enhance DOD's Strategic Workforce Plans, GAO-11-827T, July 14, 2011
• Dodd-Frank Act: Eleven Agencies' Estimates of Resources for Implementing Regulatory Reform, GAO-11-808T, July 14, 2011
• EPA Health Risk Assessments: Sustained Management and Oversight Key to Overcoming Challenges, GAO-11-824T, July 14, 2011
• Information Technology: Continued Attention Needed to Accurately Report Federal Spending and Improve Management, GAO-11-831T, July 14, 2011
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Contracts Awarded and Consultants Retained by Federal Departments and Agencies to Assist in Implementing the Act, GAO-11-797R, July 14, 2011.
• DHS Science and Technology: Additional Steps Needed to Ensure Test and Evaluation Requirements Are Met, GAO-11-596, July 14, 2011

NPR: "When you are the nation's largest owner of foreclosed homes, even little things can get expensive fast. Such is the case for mortgage giant Fannie Mae, which as of March 31 had a mind-boggling 153,000 foreclosed homes on its books...In just the first quarter of this year, Fannie racked up $488 million in foreclosure-related expenses, including holding costs (insurance, taxes and maintenance); valuation adjustments for changes in market value; gains/loss when the property is sold; legal fees; eviction costs; weatherization costs to prevent the pipes from bursting; costs to secure the property; and repair costs."

State-by-State Impact of Cuts to Highway Infrastructure Investment, The information in this table was prepared by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

News release: "[June 29, 2011] U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) announced the Senate’s passage of bipartisan legislation to clear the backlog of stalled executive nominations by permanently exempting a range of positions from Senate confirmation. The legislation, which passed 79 to 20, will reduce gridlock and increase the productivity of the Senate. The legislation now moves to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass. Once enacted into law, the bill would eliminate the need for the Senate to vote on roughly 170 executive nominations and 3,000 noncontroversial Officer Corps positions. In all, the bill, combined with a separate Senate resolution that was also expected to pass today, reduces or streamlines the number of positions requiring full Senate confirmation by one-third...A list of positions exempted from Senate confirmation—sorted by the Senate committee of jurisdiction—appears in this release."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission told Congress that consumers must be confident that their privacy will be protected if they are to be willing to take advantage of all the benefits offered by the Internet marketplace. Commission testimony to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, delivered by Commissioner Julie Brill, states that, “Privacy has been an important component of the Commission’s consumer protection mission for 40 years. During this time, the Commission’s goal in the privacy arena has remained constant: to protect consumers’ personal information and ensure that they have the confidence to take advantage of the many benefits offered by the dynamic and ever-changing marketplace.”

Technical Advancements and Issues Associated with the Permanent Disposal of High-Activity Wastes: Lessons Learned from Yucca Mountain and Other Programs, A Report to Congress and the Secretary of Energy by the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, June 2011.

CBO's 2011 Long-Term Budget Outlook: Statement of Douglas W. Elmendorf before the Committee on the Budget U.S. House of Representatives, June 23, 2011

The Orderly Liquidation of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. under the Dodd-Frank Act, FDIC Quarterly, Early release for the upcoming 2011, Volume 5, No. 2

CBO: Preemptions in Federal Legislation in the 111th and Previous Congresses, June 21, 2011

News release: "The Defense Department has sent to Congress a report on its Arctic operations that leaders say will put the department in a good position to shape U.S. interests as the region undergoes dramatic climate and social changes. The Report to Congress on Arctic Operations and the Northwest Passage, mandated by the fiscal 2011 National Defense Authorization Act, “was true value added” to U.S. policies on the Arctic, a DOD official speaking on background said June 3 when the report was sent to Congress." From the Summary: "This report responds to House Report 111-491, page 337, to accompany H.R. 5136, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, which requested the Department of Defense (DoD) provide a report on Arctic operations addressing strategic national security objectives, needed mission capabilities, an assessment of changing the Unified Command Plan (UCP), needed basing infrastructure, and the status of and need for icebreakers.

• Section One provides the overarching context for the rest of the report and assesses the national security objectives in the region.
  
• Section Two assesses the capabilities needed to support the identified strategic objectives and, where gaps are identified, describes mitigation approaches to address them.
  
• Section Three assesses the advantages and disadvantages of amending the Unified Command Plan to designate a single Combatant Commander for the Arctic region.
  
• Section Four assesses the basing infrastructure needed to support the identified strategic objectives, including the need for a U.S. deep-water port in the Arctic.
  
• Section Five assesses the status of and need for icebreakers in the context of the capabilities to support national security objectives.
  
• The Arctic is warming on average twice as fast as the rest of the planet, resulting in increased human activity in the region. Although some perceive that competition for resources and boundary disputes may result in conflict in the Arctic, the opening of the Arctic also presents opportunities to work collaboratively in multilateral forums to promote a balanced approach to improving human and environmental security in the region."
Permanent Link

• June 16, 2011 - Governor Daniel K. Tarullo - Capital and liquidity standards - Before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
• June 15, 2011 - Michael R. Foley, Senior Associate Director, Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation, Banking supervision - Before the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.
• June 15, 2011 - Michael S. Gibson, Senior Associate Director, Division of Research and Statistics ,Implementation of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act, Before the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission told Congress today during a hearing that to minimize the risk of identity theft or other harm, companies should employ reasonable safeguards to protect consumer information, collect only information for which they have a legitimate business need, and retain data only as long as necessary to fulfill the business purposes for which it was collected. The FTC also reiterated its recommendation that Congress pass legislation that would require companies to implement reasonable security practices and to notify consumers when there is a data security breach...The Commission expressed its support for federal legislation that would require companies to put reasonable data security policies and procedures in place, and to notify consumers when there has been a data security breach that affects them. The testimony notes that the Committee’s “Discussion Draft” of data security legislation accomplishes these key goals. The testimony highlights several other elements of the Discussion Draft, which gives the Commission authority to use the standard APA notice and comment procedures for rulemaking in connection with the legislation, provides for civil penalties for violations, and requires non-profit entities to adhere to the same data security and breach notification standards as for-profit entities."

House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, FY 2012 Defense Bill - Report

Implementing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: "This law creates a new, more effective regulatory structure, fills a host of regulatory gaps, brings greater public transparency and market accountability to the financial system and gives investors important protections and greater input into corporate governance." — SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro

"The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has made available the Congressional Pictorial Directory: 112th Congress on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys), a one-stop site to authentic, published Government information. GPO employees designed and created the Pictorial Directory, which features a color photograph of each Member of the House of Representatives and the Senate and details each Member’s length of service, political party affiliation, and congressional district. The Pictorial Directory also contains pictures of the President, Vice President, and House and Senate officers and officials."

News release: "U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, released a Committee Minority analysis, Physician Owned Distributors (PODs): An Overview of Key Issues and Potential Areas for Congressional Oversight, detailing a spike in the utilization of medical procedures by physicians invested in these entities. Citing these concerns, Hatch spearheaded two separate bipartisan letters to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General calling for an investigation. This analysis, conducted by the Senate Finance Committee Minority staff, examines the structure and activities of physician owned distributorships (PODs) within the medical device supply chain. In recent years, there has been an uptick in these arrangements, which allow physician investors to purchase ownership shares in an entity that, in turn, purchases or serves as a medical device distributor for the products the physician utilizes in surgery. Hatch’s analysis, which identifies the rapid proliferation of PODs in at least 20 states, exposes the lack of specific legal guidance issued by the Office of Inspector General for HHS to govern the structure and establishment of PODs and brings into question the utilization and appropriateness of services provided by doctors participating in some of the PODs, particularly with respect to Medicare, which is funded by taxpayers. The Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid."

Evaluating U.S. Foreign Assistance to Afghanistan - A Majority Staff Report Prepared for the Use of the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 112th Congress, First Session, June 8, 2011

News release: "U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), co-chairs of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control released a report outlining key steps and initiatives to combat Mexico’s brutal drug trafficking organizations and reduce violence in the country. The report, U.S. and Mexican Responses to Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations, is endorsed by all seven Members of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control and makes several recommendations for the U.S. government. The report synthesizes information gathered through a country visit, briefings, interviews, and a review of documents from both government and non-government subject matter experts."

Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports, via EPIC: "The House has approved the 2012 budget for the Transportation Security Administration, cutting $270 million from the amount originally requested by the Agency. The cuts include $76 million that had been designated for the purchase of 275 airport body scanners. Leading lawmakers and activists have called attention to the health risks associated with the scanners, as well as their invasiveness. Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) criticized the machines as “slow” and “ineffective.”

Geospatial Information and Geographic Information Systems (GIS): An Overview for Congress, Peter Folger - Specialist in Energy and Natural Resources Policy. May 18, 2011

RollCall: "After two days of wrangling and last-minute deal-making in the Senate, Congress cleared a reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act on Thursday, and the Obama administration announced that the president signed the bill into law before provisions of the anti-terrorism act expired at midnight. A standoff over amendments in the Senate ate into the time needed to fly the enrolled bill to President Barack Obama, who is traveling in Europe. Instead of physically signing the bill, Obama planned to direct the use of an autopen to sign it, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said in an email shortly after the House cleared the bill. “Failure to sign this legislation poses a significant risk to U.S. national security,” Shapiro said in the email. Autopens generate a facsimile of an individual’s signature and are frequently used by Members of Congress for signing constituent correspondence and other letters. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel advised in 2005 that the president may sign a bill by autopen."

Audit of the Financial Statements For the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2009 Report No. 11-HSW-03 May 26, 2011

Fact Sheet: "The Securities and Exchange Commission [May 18, 2011] voted unanimously to propose new rules and amendments intended to increase transparency and improve the integrity of credit ratings. The proposed rules would implement certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and enhance the SEC’s existing rules governing credit ratings and Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSROs). “In passing the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress noted that credit ratings applied to structured financial products proved inaccurate and contributed significantly to the mismanagement of risks by financial institutions and investors,” said SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro. “Our proposed rules are intended to strengthen the integrity and improve the transparency of credit ratings.” Under the SEC’s proposal, NRSROs would be required to:

• Report on internal controls.
  
• Protect against conflicts of interest.
  
• Establish professional standards for credit analysts.
  
• Publicly provide – along with the publication of the credit rating – disclosure about the credit rating and the methodology used to determine it.
  
• Enhance their public disclosures about the performance of their credit ratings.
  
• The SEC’s proposal also requires disclosure concerning third-party due diligence reports for asset-backed securities."

News release: "The latest Broadband Progress Report to Congress from the Federal Communications Commission reveals that approximately 26 million Americans, mostly in rural communities located in every region of the country, are denied access to the jobs and economic opportunity made possible by broadband. While the infrastructure of high-speed Internet is unavailable to those Americans, the FCC report also finds that approximately one-third of Americans do not subscribe to broadband, even when it's available. This suggests that barriers to adoption such as cost, low digital literacy, and concerns about privacy remain too high. The Report also notes limited broadband capacity for schools and libraries as a further indicator that broadband is not being reasonably and timely deployed and is not available to all Americans. Without action by the FCC in partnership with the states and the private sector, prospects for broadband service in many of the areas cited in the Report will remain unacceptably low. The Report finds the problem especially acute among low-income Americans, African-Americans, Hispanics, seniors, and residents of Tribal areas. Congress recognized the importance of broadband in Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which directs the FCC to take immediate action to accelerate broadband deployment when it is not "reasonable and timely."

News release: "The debt limit is the total amount of money that the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments. The debt limit does not authorize new spending commitments. It simply allows the government to finance existing legal obligations that Congresses and presidents of both parties have made in the past. Failing to increase the debt limit would have catastrophic economic consequences. It would cause the government to default on its legal obligations – an unprecedented event in American history. That would precipitate another financial crisis and threaten the jobs and savings of everyday Americans – putting the United States right back in a deep economic hole, just as the country is recovering from the recent recession."

The Highway Trust Fund and Paying for Highways - May 17, 2011, - Testimony before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate

Follow up to Senate Investigations Subcommittee Releases Levin-Coburn Report On the Financial Crisis, via Rolling Stone, The People vs. Goldman Sachs - A Senate committee has laid out the evidence. Now the Justice Department should bring criminal charges, by Matt Tabbai.

"...the Administration has transmitted a cybersecurity legislative proposal to Capitol Hill in response to Congress’ call for assistance on how best to address the cybersecurity needs of our Nation. This is a milestone in our national effort to ensure secure and reliable networks for Americans, businesses, and government; fundamentally, this proposal strikes a critical balance between maintaining the government’s role and providing industry with the capacity to innovatively tackle threats to national cybersecurity. Just as importantly, it does so while providing a robust framework to protect civil liberties and privacy."

• Read the fact sheet
  
• Read about the Administration’s Cybersecurity Accomplishments
  
• Read the text of the legislative proposal.

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission today told Congress that “the Commission is committed to protecting consumers’ privacy in the mobile sphere” by bringing enforcement actions where appropriate and “by working with industry and consumer groups to develop workable solutions that protect consumers while allowing innovation in this growing marketplace.” In Commission testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee for Privacy, Technology and the Law, Jessica Rich, Deputy Director in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said the FTC has been examining mobile and wireless issues since 2000, when the agency hosted a workshop on emerging wireless Internet and data technologies and the privacy, security, and consumer protection issues they raise. The FTC also hosted a technology forum in 2006 that featured mobile issues, two Town Halls to explore the use of radio frequency identification technology and its integration into mobile devices, and a forum in 2008 examining consumer protection issues in the mobile sphere. In addition, the FTC has taken law enforcement actions against companies that fail to protect the privacy and security of consumer information. The testimony highlighted four recent cases that illustrate how the FTC’s authority applies to the mobile arena. The FTC’s case against Google alleges that the company deceived consumers by using information collected from Gmail users to generate and populate a new social network, Google Buzz, without users’ consent. As part of the proposed settlement order, Google must protect the privacy of all of its customers – including mobile users."

FDLP Listserv: "On March 17, Public Printer Bill Boarman testified before the Senate appropriations subcommittee on the costs of producing Federal publications, such as the Congressional Record. Subsequently, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) made a YouTube video on the production of the Congressional Record to illustrate the production process for this important publication. With origins in the requirement of Article I of the Constitution that "Congress shall keep a journal of its proceedings...and from time to time publish the same," the Congressional Record contains the proceedings and debates of the Senate and House of Representatives. It has been called "a symbol of our democracy through which the people may observe the making of their laws and may hold their lawmakers accountable for their words and deeds."

The big four phone carriers spill on their location and customer data collection policies: "The recent uproar over location tracking in smartphones has gotten ugly and fingers are bound to be pointed. But in the spirit of transparency, the four major carriers have outlined and detailed their location tracking applications s well as what exactly that data is being used for. The honesty does come as a response to the revelation that iPhones, Android devices, and Windows Phone 7 units are tracking user location."

The Orderly Liquidation of Lehman Brothers Holdings under the Dodd-Frank Act, April 18, 2011

Fact sheet: "The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously to propose rules further defining the terms “swap,” “security-based swap,” and “security-based swap agreement.” The Commission also proposed rules regarding “mixed swaps” and books and records for “security-based swap agreements.” The rules were proposed jointly with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and stem from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act."

Total Tweeters By Party - 402: "We believe transparent government is better government. Twitter enables real conversation between lawmakers and voters, in real time. Find your representatives in Congress, follow them...* Democrat 167, * Independent 2, * Republican 233"

Overview of Immigration Issues in the 112th Congress, Ruth Ellen Wasem, Specialist in Immigration Policy, March 21, 2011

Declan McCullagh,Chief political correspondent, CNET: How police have obtained iPhone, iPad tracking logs

"Today Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman, Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Edward J. Markey, and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette released a new report, Chemicals Used in Hydraulic Fracturing, that summarizes the types, volumes, and chemical contents of the hydraulic fracturing products used by the 14 leading oil and gas service companies. The report contains the first comprehensive national inventory of chemicals used by hydraulic fracturing companies during the drilling process.

Congressional Liaison Offices of Selected Federal Agencies, April 01, 2011

News release: "Concluding a two-year bipartisan investigation, Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Senator Tom Coburn M.D., R-Okla., Chairman and Ranking Republican on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, [April 13, 2011] released a 635-page final report on their inquiry into key causes of the financial crisis. The report catalogs conflicts of interest, heedless risk-taking and failures of federal oversight that helped push the country into the deepest recession since the Great Depression...[the] report presents new facts, new findings and recommendations, with more than 700 new documents totaling over 5,800 pages. It recounts how Washington Mutual aggressively issued and sold high-risk mortgages to Wall Street, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, even as its executives predicted a housing bubble that would burst, and offers new detail about how its regulator deferred to the bank’s management. New documents show how Goldman used net short positions to benefit from the downturn in the mortgage market, and designed, marketed, and sold CDOs in ways that created conflicts of interest with the firm’s clients and at times led to the bank’s profiting from the same products that caused substantial losses for its clients. Other new information provides additional detail about how credit rating agencies rushed to rate new mortgage-backed securities and collect lucrative rating fees before issuing mass ratings downgrades that shocked the financial markets and triggered a collapse in the value of mortgage related securities. Over 120 new documents provide insights into how Deutsche Bank contributed to the mortgage mess."

• REPORT - Wall Street & the Financial Crisis - Anatomy of a Financial Collapse
  
• FOOTNOTE EXHIBIT LOCATOR (by FN and Bates)
  
• FN 107 - 1342 (pgs 1-1037)
  
• FN 1343 - 1459 (pgs 1038-2164)
  
• FN 1462 - 1576 (pgs 2165-3003)
  
• FN 1584 - 1622 (pgs 3004-3448)
  
• FN 1623 - 2406 (pgs 3449-4484)
  
• FN 2409 - 2706 (pgs 4485-5459)
  
• FN 2724 - 2831 (pgs 5460-5901)

"In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) set out to inspect the U.S. fleet of nuclear reactors to ensure their safety and report publicly on its findings. Yet today, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) revealed that significant limits may be imposed on the inspections, and that inspectors also have been directed to keep many of the most serious vulnerabilities secret. In a letter sent to Greg Jaczko, the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rep. Markey notes that he has been informed that inspectors are limited to 40 hours to check a nuclear power plant with only one unit, and 50-60 hours to check a plant with multiple units. Inspectors were also initially instructed to limit their inspections only to the adequacy of safety measures needed to respond to “Design Basis Events.” These inspections were therefore looking at the vulnerabilities to events that have already been contemplated and analyzed by the NRC, but not to many of the events that occurred in Fukushima which were previously considered to be impossible and therefore not subject to regulation. When NRC's own inspectors complained about this limitation, it was removed, but inspectors were then directed not to record any observations or findings of vulnerabilities that went beyond design-basis events in any document that would eventually become public as part of the NRC's review."

Majority And Minority Staff Report United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Wall Street And The Financial Crisis: Anatomy Of A Financial Collapse, April 13, 2011 - : "This 639 page report, which was part of a 2-year bi-partisan investigation by the U.S. Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations into the origins of the 2008 financial crisis. The goal of the report was to: "deepen the understanding of what happened; identify some of the root causes of the crisis; and provide a factual foundation for the ongoing effort to fortify the country against the recurrence of a similar crisis in the future." The report includes more than 150 interviews and depositions, and consultations with dozens of government, academic and private sector experts. In April 2010, the Subcommittee held four hearings examining four root causes of the financial crisis."

"The Federal Trade Commission today told a House subcommittee that millions of consumers are victims of identity theft each year at a cost of billion of dollars and countless hours of consumers’ time to repair the damage. In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee’s Social Security Subcommittee, the agency said helping protect consumers from ID theft and deal with its consequences is a critical part of the FTC’s consumer protection mission. In the testimony, the FTC recommended legislation to help mitigate the identity theft problem by making Social Security numbers less useful to identity thieves and making the numbers harder to access."

Federal Reserve Governor Daniel K. Tarullo - Derivatives regulation, Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., April 12, 2011

Cost Estimate for H.R. 1473, The Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011 - April 12, 2011

Monthly Budget Review, April 2011, Based on the Monthly Treasury Statement for February and the Daily Treasury Statements for March

• Fact Sheet - Report to the Congress, March 2011: "As required by the Congress, each March the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reviews Medicare payment policies and makes recommendations. The 2011 report includes payment policy recommendations for ten payment systems: hospital inpatient, hospital outpatient, physician and other health professional, ambulatory surgical center, outpatient dialysis, skilled nursing, home health, inpatient rehabilitation facility, long-term care hospital, and hospice. MedPAC also reviews the status of the Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and prescription drug plans (Part D)."
• Testimony: Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy (Ways and Means, March 15, 2011)
• Medpac Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy (March 2011) - 384 pages, PDF

The Economist: "On Thursday March 31st Richard Muller of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory gave evidence to the energy and commerce committee of America’s House of Representatives on the surface temperature record...a new and methodologically interesting study, carried out by people some of whom might have been expected to take a somewhat sceptical view on the issue, seems essentially to have confirmed the results of earlier work on the rate at which the earth’s temperature is rising. This makes suggestions that this rise is an artefact of bad measurement, or indeed a conspiracy of climatologists, even less credible than they were before."

A Review of CBO's Activities in 2010 Under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, March 31, 2011

Women in the United States Congress: 1917-2011. Jennifer E. Manning, Information Research Specialist; Colleen J. Shogan, Assistant Director/Senior Specialist in Government and Finance; Susan Navarro Smelcer, Analyst on the Federal Judiciary. March 18, 2011

Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Federal Health Information Technology Strategic Plan 2011 – 2015

News release: "At a time when many consumers are having trouble paying their debts, the Federal Trade Commission issued its 33rd annual report describing the agency’s law enforcement and other efforts to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, and abusive debt collection practices. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) prohibits these and other improper practices by third-party debt collectors and requires that the Commission submit annual reports to Congress discussing the agency’s administration of the FDCPA. Data in the report, Federal Trade Commission Annual Report 2011: Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (March 2011), show that in 2010, as in other recent years, the FTC received more complaints about debt collection than any other single industry. Specifically, the agency received 140,036 debt collection complaints in 2010, up from 119,609 complaints in 2009. The top three categories of complaints about third-party collectors were:

• calling repeatedly or continuously;
  
• misrepresenting the character, amount, or status of the debt (including demanding a larger payment than is permitted by law); and
  
• failing to send consumers a statutorily required written notice about the debt and their rights.

"LegiStorm remains the exclusive online home of congressional staff salaries. This is the only spot on the web where you can find out who's making the big money on Capitol Hill and who's toiling for peanuts."

News release: "In testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the Federal Trade Commission discussed its efforts to protect consumer privacy through enforcement actions, consumer education, and policy initiatives like the FTC staff’s recent preliminary privacy report. The report proposes a framework to balance consumer privacy with industry innovation by: 1) building privacy protections into everyday business practices (“privacy-by-design”); 2) simplifying privacy choices for consumers; and 3)improving transparency with clearer, shorter privacy notices. The Commission told Congress that industry stakeholders have made important progress in implementing Do Not Track, a mechanism proposed in the staff's preliminary privacy report last December that would allow consumers to choose not to have their Internet browsing tracked by third parties. The testimony noted that two of the major Internet browsers – Microsoft and Mozilla – “have recently announced the development of new choice mechanisms for online behavioral advertising that seek to provide increased transparency, greater consumer control, and improved ease of use.”

Foreign Aid: An Introduction to U.S. Programs and Policy - Curt Tarnoff, Specialist in Foreign Affairs / Marian Leonardo Lawson, Analyst in Foreign Assistance, February 10, 2011

Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects - Clinton T. Brass, Analyst in Government Organization and Management, February 18, 2011

http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/98-241_20110211.pdfhttp://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/98-241_20110211.pdf - Valerie Heitshusen, Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process, February 11, 2011

Testimony before the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, Committee on Armed Services, U.S. House of Representatives, March 10, 2011.

Center for Responsive Politics Reports on wealth of Freshman House and Senate Members - [To download a spreadsheet containing raw data in part used to produce this report, click here: personalfinances_3_2011.xls]

News release: "At a hearing today in front of the Senate Commerce Committee on the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Assistant NOAA Administrator for Fisheries Eric Schwaab said that the U.S. is making good progress toward meeting the mandate to end domestic overfishing. “We know that nearly $31 billion in sales and as many as 500,000 jobs are lost because our fisheries are not performing as well as they would if all stocks were rebuilt,” Schwaab said. “While we are turning a corner toward a brighter future for fishermen and fishing communities, many fishermen are struggling in part as a result of years of decline in fishing opportunity.” Schwaab said that NOAA is committed to working with fishermen and communities during this period of transition. Our nation’s fisheries have been vital to the economics and identities of our coastal communities for hundreds of years. According to the most recent estimates, U.S. commercial and saltwater recreational fisheries support almost two million jobs and generate more than $160 billion in sales."

"A nonpartisan map of all 435 congressional districts in the nation has never been drawn. The widespread diffusion of redistricting technology and data and the training of a group of students dedicated to that purpose has made such a map possible for the first time. DrawCongress.org represents the first attempt to create an internet depository for nonpartisan congressional maps for the entire country. DrawCongress.org is an outgrowth of the “Redistricting and Gerrymandering” course at Columbia Law School. At this website you will find a series of student-drawn nonpartisan redistricting plans, which will culminate in a complete map of all 435 congressional districts. The students used Caliper Corporation's Maptitude for Redistricting software to draw their plans."

Monetary Policy Report to the Congress Submitted pursuant to section 2B of the Federal Reserve Act, March 1, 2011: "Economic activity in the United States expanded at a moderate pace, on average, in the second half of 2010 and early 2011. In the spring and early summer, a number of key indicators of economic activity softened relative to the readings posted in late 2009 and the first part of 2010, raising concerns about the durability of the recovery. In light of these developments--and in order to put the economic recovery on a firmer footing--the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) provided additional monetary policy stimulus during the second half of 2010 by reinvesting principal repayments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in longer-term Treasury securities and by announcing its intention to purchase an additional $600 billion of Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011."

Shaving Off Dollars and Cents: "House Republicans announced a two-week spending bill designed to avert a government shutdown March 4. The measure would cut several programs already targeted by the White House for elimination, producing a total of $1.24 billion in savings. Cutting certain earmarks would realize $2.7 billion more in reductions."

CBO Estimate of H.R. 1, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 as Passed by the House of Representatives on February 19, 2011 (In millions of dollars)

Via Capital.net, the guide - Congress by the Numbers, 112th Congress, 1st Session, includes the following resources: Congress Seating Charts - Congressional Schedule - Congressional leadership and committees - Leadership of the current Congress - with photos, and more.

Congress 3.0 for Android: "If you have an Android phone (or tablet) and haven't checked out the Congress app for Android in a while, now is a good time to give it another look. Today we're releasing version 3.0, which, in addition to a redesigned theme and layout, adds: Live updates from the House floor; Upcoming committee hearings in the House and Senate; Keyword search for bills (e.g. "health care", "deficit", "immigration"); Details on any amendment that receives a vote. And as usual, you can subscribe to be notified at any time of pretty much everything in the app, be they updates from the floor, or bill search results, or votes. All of the new features come from the recently launched Real Time Congress API."

Avoiding Water Wars: Water Scarcity and Central Asia's Growing Importance for Stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Majority Staff Report prepared for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 112th Congress, First Session, February 22, 2011

Senate Foreign Relations Committee - Iraq: The Transition from a Military Mission to a Civilian-Led Effort (Committee Print - Majority), January 31, 2011

Saving Oil and Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions through U.S. Federal Transportation Policy, by Cynthia J. Burbank, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Nick Nigro, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, February 2011

News release, World Wildlife Fund: "America’s conservation heritage took a major hit in the...budget plan that passed the House of Representatives, including many programs intended to protect the health of our children and the natural world that we all depend on, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said today. The budget proposal strips away funding to save the world’s forests, fisheries and disappearing wildlife. It would also take unprecedented steps to prevent the stewards of our air, water and public lands from doing their jobs, leaving millions of Americans in harms way. Many of the proposed cuts would slash funding by 30 percent or more, and some programs to maintain America’s parks, protect tropical rainforests and to address the causes and consequences of climate change would be eliminated entirely...The House budget proposal would have a profound negative impact on successful conservation and science programs currently underway. Agencies facing cuts include:

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - 30%
  
• US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Multinational Species Conservation Funds - 32%
  
• Global Environment Facility (GEF) - 63%
  
• USAID - 30%
  
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - 8%, including 100% funding for the Climate Service program
  
• Clean Technology Fund (CTF): Zeroes Out Funding
  
• Forest Investment Program (FIP) : Zeroes Out Funding
  
• Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR): Zeroes Out Funding
  
• North American Wetlands Conservation Fund (NAWCF) – Zeroes Out Funding
  
• Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation (NMBC) – 11%
  
• Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) – 33% cut in supporting fund with TFCA targeted for zero funding

Science Insider: "Last night the U.S. House of Representatives agreed to cut off funding for the rest of 2011 for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “My constituents should not have to continue to foot the bill for an organization to keep producing corrupt findings that can be used as justification to impose a massive new energy tax on every American,” said Representative Blaine Leutkemeyer (R-MO), the sponsor of the measure, in floor debate before the vote. Leutkemeyer said in a press release that his amendment, which passed 244 to 179 largely along partisan lines, represented “a victory for taxpayers.”

Egypt: Background and U.S. Relations - Jeremy M. Sharp, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, February 4, 2011

Investigation of the Failure of the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office to Uncover Fraud in Westridge Capital Management Notwithstanding Investment Adviser Examination Conducted in 2005 and Inappropriate Conduct on the Part of Senior Los Angeles Official, Case No. OIG-533 [redacted, dated October 26, 2010 and released February 2011]

Governor Daniel K. Tarullo, Assessing the regulatory, economic, and market implications of the Dodd-Frank derivatives title, Before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., February 15, 2011

Statement for the Record on the Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, February 10, 2011

Long-Term Implications of the 2011 Future Years Defense Program

News release: "[February 9, 2011] Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Bobby L. Rush, Ranking Member of the Energy and Power Subcommittee, released a letter and white paper from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the economic benefits of implementing the Clean Air Act. The EPA found that implementing the Clean Air Act's public health protections "creates American jobs and bolsters the global competitiveness of American industry, even as it lowers healthcare costs and protects American families from birth defects, illnesses, and premature death."

"The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced its approval of a final rule to implement the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that give banking firms a period of time to conform their activities and investments to the prohibitions and restrictions of the so-called Volcker Rule. The Volcker Rule generally prohibits banking entities from engaging in proprietary trading in securities, derivatives, or certain other financial instruments and from investing in, sponsoring, or having certain relationships with a hedge fund or private equity fund. The statute generally provides banking entities two years to bring their activities and investments into compliance and allows the Board to extend this conformance period under certain conditions. The Dodd-Frank Act requires that the Board issue rules implementing the Volcker Rule's conformance period. In developing the rule, the Board consulted with the Department of the Treasury, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The final rule is substantially similar to the proposal published in November."

"The role of social media in Congressional leaders’ messaging and outreach has exploded over the past few years, whether it be through tweets about floor schedule updates or on Facebook. But within that trend is a clear — and nonpartisan — divide between the savvy and those still in the dark. House Democratic and Republican leadership aides are eager to tout their bosses’ use of social media." [Link]

$1 Trillion in Profits and Still at the Trough: Oil and Gas in the 21st Century, February 3, 2011. House Committee on Natural Resources, Democratic Staff.

"The Federal Trade Commission issued its annual report to the Federal Reserve Board on FTC enforcement activities regarding the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA), Consumer Leasing Act, and Truth in Lending Act. This year’s report also discusses FTC activities under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, such as enforcement of new EFTA requirements and the FTC’s new authority over motor vehicle dealers."

State of Florida v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 10-cv-00091, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida (Pensacola)

"In his 2011 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama spoke about key policy issues that are on the minds of many Americans: jobs and the economy, education, clean energy, health care reform, U.S. military personnel and their families, and the United States' involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here is a selection on Education, Energy, The Economy, Health Care, Military Personnel, Iraq, and Afghanistan] of reports, testimonies, journal articles, and videos that present some findings of RAND's work in these areas. With its commitment to objective research and analysis RAND has endeavored to enrich the policy debate and provide strategies decision makers can use as they address the challenges ahead."

Analysis of Federal Civilian and Military Compensation, January 20, 2011 Letter to the Honorable Steny H. Hoyer

Via House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) - "YouCut – a first-of-its-kind project - is designed to defeat the permissive culture of runaway spending in Congress. It allows you to vote, both online and on your cell phone, on spending cuts that you want to see the House enact. Each week that the House is in session, we will take the winning item and offer it to the full House for an up-or-down vote, so that you can see where your representative stands on your priorities. Vote on this page today for your priorities and together we can begin to change Washington's culture of spending into a culture of savings."

News release: "Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released a new analysis showing that, without the Affordable Care Act, up to 129 million non-elderly Americans who have some type of pre-existing health condition, like heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis or cancer, would be at risk of losing health insurance when they need it most, or be denied coverage altogether. Under the full range of policies in the Affordable Care Act to be enacted by 2014, Americans living with pre-existing conditions are free from discrimination and can get the health coverage they need, and families are free from the worry of having their insurance cancelled or capped when a family member gets sick, or going broke because of the medical costs of an accident or disease. Repealing the law would once again leave millions of Americans worrying about whether coverage will be there when they need it."

Present Law And Historical Overview Of The Federal Tax System, Scheduled for a Public Hearing Before the Committee on Ways and Means on January 20, 2011, Prepared by the Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, January 18, 2011, JCX-1-11 (January 18, 2011)

Unauthorized Appropriations and Expiring Authorizations (Appropriations). "As required, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports each January to the Congress on the following:

• All programs and activities funded for the current fiscal year for which authorizations of appropriations have expired, and
  
• All programs and activities for which authorizations of appropriations will expire during the current fiscal year.
  
• That requirement is specified in section 202(e)(3) of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The purpose of that provision is "to help Congress use the early months of the year to adopt authorizing legislation that must be in place before the regular appropriation bills can be considered."

"The sixth in a series of congressionally mandated reports on Gulf War veterans' health, this volume evaluates the health effects associated with stress. Since the launch of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, there has been growing concern about the physical and psychological health of Gulf War and other veterans. In the late 1990s, Congress responded by asking the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to review and evaluate the scientific and medical literature regarding associations between illness and exposure to toxic agents, environmental or wartime hazards, and preventive medicines or vaccines in members of the armed forces who were exposed to such agents. Deployment to a war zone has a profound impact on the lives of troops and on their family members. There are a plethora of stressors associated with deployment, including constant vigilance against unexpected attack, difficulty distinguishing enemy combatants from civilians, concerns about survival, caring for the badly injured, and witnessing the death of a person. Less traumatic but more pervasive stressors include anxiety about home life, such as loss of a job and income, impacts on relationships, and absence from family. The focus of this report, by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Gulf War and Health: Physiologic, and Psychosocial Effects of Deployment-Related Stress, is the long-term effects of deployment-related stress. Gulf War and Health: Volume 6. Physiologic, and Psychosocial Effects of Development Related Stress evaluates the scientific literature regarding association between deployment-related stressors and health effects, and provides meaningful recommendations to remedy this problem."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission has issued a fourth interim report to Congress describing progress the agency has made on a national study examining the accuracy of credit reports. Congress directed the FTC to conduct a study of credit report accuracy and provide interim reports every two years, starting in 2004 and continuing through 2012, with a final report in 2014."

The 2010 Congressional Reapportionment and Latinos, January 2010

Sources Sought: "The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the United States House of Representatives seeks vendors experienced with web design, development and support using Drupal, the open-source web content management system. This is a source selection process only. The CAO will not be making any contract awards during this process. The CAO has established a flexible Drupal hosting platform as the preferred web hosting environment for the House. Members, Committees, Leadership, Officers and Officials (the CAO’s customers) each manage and control a public web site. These customers have the independent authority to select the web vendor of their choice provided that vendor meets specific House requirements. In total, there are nearly 520 unique House web sites within House.gov."

News release: "The US Library of Congress chose the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University (LII) to help develop new methods to preserve, analyze, organize, and present Congressional legislative information and materials digitally. The project is headed by LII Director Thomas R. Bruce. Dave Shetland, Sara Frug, and Wayne Weibel will make up the rest of the LII’s team of experts. Long-time LII collaborators Metadata Management Associates will work with LII on this important project. “This project introduces the idea of a model that reflects the life cycle of legislation–a significantly different model than the one used in traditional library materials,” says Diane Hillmann, Partner at MMA. Hillmann’s team will be joined by John Joergensen, a law librarian at Rutgers University (Camden), and Robert Richards, each well known for their work in library-based legal informatics. The work and research LII provides Library of Congress will form the foundation of the Library’s plans to improve digital access to historical and current Congressional legislative information. Important Congressional documents — bills, Presidential documents, committee reports, public laws, and the United States Code among others — will be better organized and easier to find online for scholars, researchers, and average citizens, alike. The project will significantly improve public access to Congressional materials through THOMAS — Congress’ main electronic point of access for the public, as well as the Legislative Information System (LIS) used internally by the Senate and the House of Representatives."

Justice Undone: The Release of the Lockerbie Bomber, December 2010

Salon: "The high-capacity magazine of the semiautomatic pistol used in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and more than a dozen other people on Saturday would have been illegal to manufacture and difficult to purchase under the Clinton-era assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. According to police and media reports, the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, legally purchased a semiautomatic Glock 19 with a high-capacity magazine in November at a gun store in Tucson. Under the assault weapons ban, it was illegal to manufacture or sell new high-capacity magazines, defined as those that hold more than 10 rounds. The magazines used by Loughner had 31 rounds each, according to police. If Loughner had been using a traditional magazine, "it would have drastically reduced the number of shots he got off before he had to pause, unload and reload -- and he could have been stopped," Daniel Vice, senior attorney at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, tells Salon."

• Via Politico: Federal charges could carry death penalty and Young intern saved Gabrielle Giffords's life. Also - "The U.S. government charged Jared Lee Loughner with five counts on Sunday, including murder and attempted assassination. The complaint is here. An accompanying release is up here."
  
• WaPo: Gun used in Tucson was purchased legally; Arizona laws among most lax in nation

Preliminary Analysis of H.R. 2, the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, January 6, 2011 Letter to the Honorable John Boehner

News release: "National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson today released her annual report to Congress, identifying the need for tax reform as the number one priority in tax administration. The Advocate expressed continuing concern that the IRS’s increasing use of hard-core enforcement actions, particularly tax liens, is inflicting unnecessary harm on financially struggling taxpayers. The report also examines challenges the IRS is facing in implementing the new health care law."

• Executive Summary of 2010 Annual Report to Congress
  
• Complete Report: 2010 Annual Report to Congress

WaPo: As outrage over screenings rises, sites consider replacing TSA - "For airports, the change isn't about money. At issue, airport managers and security experts say, is the unwieldy size and bureaucracy of the federal aviation security system. Private firms may be able to do the job more efficiently and with a personal touch, they say. Airports that choose private screeners must submit the request to the TSA. There are no specific criteria for approval, but federal officials can decide whether to grant the request "based on the airport's record of compliance on security regulations and requirements." The TSA pays for the cost of the screening and has the final say on which company gets the contract. Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), the incoming chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has written to 200 of the nation's largest airports, urging them to consider switching to private companies. The TSA was "never intended to be an army of 67,000 employees," he said."

Proposed U.S. House Rules Welcome (Quiet) Mobile Devices to the Floor: "In this last Congress, the 111th, the House operated under a rule that dictated that no one shall "smoke or use a wireless telephone or personal computer on the floor of the House." But, according to copy of the proposed rules just posted to the website of the Committee on Rules, that section has been tweaked for the 112th congress to give the Speaker of the House wide discretion in dictating what sort of mobile technologies members and staffers can bring to and use on the floor of the House.

Politics goes mobile, by Aaron Smith, Lee Rainie, Dec 23, 2010: "More than a quarter of American adults – 26% – used their cell phones to learn about or participate in the 2010 mid-term election campaign. In a post-election nationwide survey of adults, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that 82% of adults have cell phones. Of those cell owners, 71% use their phone for texting and 39% use the phone for accessing the internet. With that as context, the Pew Internet survey found that:

• 14% of all American adults used their cell phones to tell others that they had voted.
  
• 12% of adults used their cell phones to keep up with news about the election or politics.
  
• 10% of adults sent text messages relating to the election to friends, family members and others.
  
• 6% of adults used their cells to let others know about conditions at their local voting stations on election day, including insights about delays, long lines, low turnout, or other issues.
  
• 4% of adults used their phones to monitor results of the election as they occurred.
  
• 3% of adults used their cells to shoot and share photos or videos related to the election..."

Government Book Talk: "Examining the Filibuster: Hearings before the Committee on Rules and Administration, United States Senate [666 pages, PDF]: "Apparently the filibuster was not erected by the founding fathers as a way to safeguard the rights of the minority and guarantee careful deliberation of legislation. Originally, both Houses of Congress included a “previous question motion” in their rule books, which still allows a House majority to cut off debate. In 1805, however, neither body used the motion in this way and, at the urging of Vice President Aaron Burr in his capacity as President of the Senate, the Senate eliminated the previous question motion from its rule book – apparently without any real discussion. Even so, it was not until 1837 that the first real filibuster occurred. Another plum: the late Senator Robert C. Byrd, even though he represented the majority in the Senate for much of his career, was a passionate defender of the filibuster, proving that such issues are not decided simply on the basis of party, or majority versus minority."

Selected CBO Publications Related to Health Care Legislation, 2009–2010, December 22, 2010.

NYT: Arms Treaty With Russia Headed for Ratification: "An arms control treaty paring back American and Russian nuclear arsenals won a decisive vote in the Senate on Tuesday, clearing it for final approval and handing President Obama an important foreign policy victory. The Senate voted 67 to 28 to end debate on the treaty, known as New Start, mustering the two-thirds majority needed for ratification despite a concerted effort by Republican leaders to sink the agreement. Eleven Republican senators joined every Democrat present to support the treaty, which now heads to a seemingly certain final vote of approval on Wednesday."

• How the Senate Voted
  
• Graphic: The Arms Debate
  
• Document: The Treaty

Via a posting to GOVDOC-L by Daniel Schuman, Director | Advisory Committee on Transparency, Policy Counsel | The Sunlight Foundation: "I've just released a significant report on the link between congressional staff pay and congressional competence. What makes it relevant to this list is that the research wouldn't have been possible without a government document librarian, and it highlights how difficult it can be to obtain official gov't docs that aren't official enough to be available from GPO. Second, for those who care about the legislative branch, Congress must do a better job of making available information about itself. It was nearly impossible to obtain copies of staff salary surveys. Not until this past
year were House Expenditure Reports, which include staff pay, made available online, and they are in a terrible format that is difficult to evaluate. The Senate won't begin publishing comparable data online until the 3rd quarter of 2011. The publication. Vital Statistics on Congress 2008 is incredibly useful, but was compiled by private researchers. Again, Congress should make this information available online in formats that lend themselves to easy analysis."

A Half-Empty Government Can't Govern: Why Everyone Wants to Fix the Appointments Process, Why It Never Happens, and How We Can Get It Done. William A. Galston and E.J. Dionne, Jr., The Brookings Institution, December 14, 2010.

NYT: "The Senate on Saturday struck down the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military, bringing to a close a 17-year struggle over a policy that forced thousands of Americans from the ranks and caused others to keep secret their sexual orientation. By a vote of 65 to 31, with eight Republicans joining Democrats, the Senate approved and sent to President Obama a repeal of the Clinton-era law, known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a policy critics said amounted to government-sanctioned discrimination that treated gay and lesbian troops as second-class citizens...Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, said as the debate opened. “If you love this country enough to risk your life for it, you shouldn’t have to hide who you are."

October 2010: Quarterly Report To Congress, Management of U.S. Reconstruction Transition

Follow up to postings on Wikileaks, news of a Hearing on the Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by WikiLeaks, Thursday 12/16/2010.

LLRX.com: Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act: A Brief Legislative History with Links, Reports and Summaries

News release: "Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, released a new minority report, titled, The Real Story Behind China's Energy Policy - And What American Can Learn From It. The report shows that, regardless of its wind and solar production, China is predominantly relying on coal, oil, and natural gas, along with hydro and nuclear power, to fuel its economy. Non-hydro renewables, despite considerable government support, make up less than 1 percent of China's energy portfolio - a fact that won't change for at least the next two decades. When it comes to clean energy, China dominates production of rare earth minerals, which are necessary to produce wind turbines, solar panels, advanced batteries, energy efficient lighting, and many other energy technologies. As the report explains, China produces about 97 percent of the world's supply, while the U.S. produces none. China's dominance in this regard provides enormous economic leverage over the U.S.-and leaves our country dangerously dependent on China's resources."

Testimony, Congressional Budget Office, Statement of Douglas W. Elmendorf
Director - Trends in Federal Tax Revenues and Rates - before the Committee on Finance United States Senate, December 2, 2010

Understanding the Economy: State-by-State Snapshots (October Data), November 2010

New Member Pictorial Directory: 112th Congress - Pocket–sized compilation of color photographs of all of the men and women of the 112th Congress.

EPIC: "A new poll by Zogby International finds that 61% of Americans polled between Nov. 19 and Nov. 22 oppose the use of full body scans and TSA pat downs. Of those polled, 52% believe the enhanced security measures will not prevent terrorist activity, almost half (48%) say it is a violation of privacy rights, 33% say they should not have to go through enhanced security methods to get on an airplane, and 32% believe the full body scans and TSA pat downs to be sexual harassment. The Zogby Poll is the most recent survey of American opinion on the new airport screening procedures. Combined with earlier polls by USA Today and the Washington Post-ABC News, the Zogby Poll reflects declining support for the TSA program."

• News release: "U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, a scientist and the Chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, Friday wrote the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), reiterating his concerns about the use of body imaging technology, notably about potential health effects and the effectiveness of the screening to detect the full range of explosive threats known or anticipated to be used by potential terrorists...the majority of the radiation from X-ray backscatter machines strikes the top of the head, which is where 85 percent of the 800,000 cases of basal cell carcinoma diagnosed in the United States each year develop."
  
• Airport body-scanner manufacturers armed for K Street battle: "...Companies like L-3 Communications, the defense contractor, are providing several of the scanners under a nearly $165 million TSA contract won earlier this year, are well-prepared for the fight."
  
• WaPo: Protesters' body scanner opt-out day could bring nationwide delays at airports

The Status of the Basel III Capital Adequacy Accord, Walter W. Eubanks, Specialist in Financial Economics, October 28, 2010

Rulemaking Requirements and Authorities in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Curtis W. Copeland, Specialist in American National Government, November 3, 2010

Afghanistan: U.S. Rule of Law and Justice Sector Assistance, Liana Sun Wyler
Analyst in International Crime and Narcotics - Kenneth Katzman, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, November 9, 2010 [via FAS]

Fact Sheet: "The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted unanimously to propose new rules entailing how security-based swap transactions should be reported and publicly disseminated. The rules are proposed under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which generally authorizes the SEC to regulate security-based swaps. The proposed rules (Regulation SBSR) represent an important step in the SEC's continuing effort to increase the transparency of the security-based swap market and fulfill mandates under the Dodd-Frank Act."

News release: "Social Security faces a significant shortfall, which policy makers would be better off addressing sooner rather than later, according to a new paper, Social Security Shortfall Warrants Action Soon, released by the Pew Economic Policy Group. Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Charles Blahous, public trustee for Social Security and Medicare and former economic adviser to President George W. Bush, coauthored Social Security Shortfall Warrants Action Soon. They agree that the shortfall is real and that policymakers should act soon to fix it. Although favoring different strategies to close the gap, they agree on the reality and scope of the problem."

"The Congressional Oversight Panel's November oversight report, Examining the Consequences of Mortgage Irregularities for Financial Stability and Foreclosure Mitigation, reviews allegations that companies servicing $6.4 trillion in American mortgages may in some cases have bypassed legally required steps to foreclose on a home. The implications of these irregularities remain unclear, but it is possible that "robo-signing" may have concealed deeper problems in the mortgage market that could potentially threaten financial stability and undermine foreclosure prevention efforts."

Engineering the Climate: Research and Strategies for International Coordination, Chairman Bart Gordon, Committee on Science and Technology U.S. House of Representatives, October 2010

"Google Election Center helps you provide up-to-date election information to voters and create custom search tools for your website. You can submit the following kinds of information: Polling place locations; Registration instructions; Ballot information; State and local election office contact information. The Election Center Data Manager will guide you through the process of uploading and validating your information. After receiving your information, Google will display election information to your voters through our Maps application." See also:

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission today told the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) imposes requirements on Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) - which include the three major credit bureaus - and on employers that use the information “to ensure that sensitive consumer report information is used with fairness, impartiality, and respect for consumers’ privacy.” Commission testimony given by Maneesha Mithal, Associate Director of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, states that FCRA requirements placed on CRAs and employers are designed to promote privacy, accuracy, and fairness in the use of consumer reports. For example, before giving a consumer report to an employer, the CRA must take reasonable steps to ensure that the employer has a legitimate basis to obtain the report; must inform the employer of his or her obligation to provide certain notices to consumers; and must obtain the employer’s certification that he or she is complying with the FCRA and will not use consumer report information in violation of equal opportunity laws."

Analysis of Selected Provisions of the Domestic Manufacturing and Energy Jobs Act of 2010 — Oct 18, 2010

"The Congressional Oversight Panel's October oversight report, Examining Treasury's Use of Financial Crisis Contracting Authority, found that Treasury's extensive use of private contractors in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) programs creates significant concerns about transparency and potential conflicts of interest. Although Treasury has taken considerable steps to ensure the appropriate use of private contractors, further improvements can and should be made. Private businesses today perform many of the TARP's most critical functions, operating under 91 different contracts worth up to $434 million. In fact, the vast majority of people working on the TARP now receive their paychecks from private companies. Fannie Mae alone employs 600 workers on TARP's foreclosure programs, while Treasury has only 220 staffers working on all TARP programs combined."

The American Opportunity Tax Credit, Department of the Treasury, October 12, 2010: "The President created the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which he signed into law in February 2009. The AOTC replaces the Hope Scholarship credit for Tax Years 2009 and 2010, increasing the benefits for nearly all Hope credit recipients and many other students by providing a maximum benefit up to $2,500 per student – 100 percent of their first $2,000 in tuition and 25 percent of the next $2,000 –expanding the income range over which taxpayers can claim a credit, and making the credit partially refundable. If the AOTC is made permanent, as proposed in the President’s FY 2011 Budget, a student could receive a credit up to $10,000 over four years."

Follow up to posting, WSJ Tracks how marketers are spying on Internet users, this news release: "Representatives Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), Co-Chairman of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, released responses to the letters they had sent to companies identified in a Wall Street Journal investigation as reportedly installing intrusive consumer-tracking technologies to track and/or target consumers visiting these company Web sites. “The responses [links to which are included in this news release] raise a number of concerns, including whether consumers are able to effectively shield their personal Internet habits and private information from the prying eyes of online data gatherers,” Rep. Markey said. “Consumers may be unaware that the sites they visit, coordinating with a cadre of analytics firms, advertising networks and offline data companies, may be tracking their activities around the Internet. While the responses that Rep. Barton and I received cite privacy policies and opt-out choices to enable consumers to preserve their privacy, these policies can be complicated and laborious to navigate. For example, a single website may have business relationships with a dozen or more third-party data firms that display advertisements on its site. A consumer may have to visit each of these sites, consulting its privacy policy and clicking through to opt-out, if such an option is provided. In some cases, a list of all third party affiliates is not readily accessible, keeping consumers in the dark.”

LLRX.com: FOIA Facts - Mid-Term FOIA Grade for the Obama Administration - Scott A. Hodes provides perspective, and an overall grade, to how the administration has done during the first half of its first term in regard to FOIA.

Unclassified White House Report to Congress on Afghanistan and Pakistan, addressed to Senator Carl Levin, Chairman, Armed Services Committee, September 30, 2010. The report notes "both positive and negative trends in the implementation of our Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy."

News release: "Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today released the report of the committee’s yearlong inquiry into the role and oversight of the Department of Defense’s private security contractors in Afghanistan. The Committee approved the report on Sept. 28, 2010. The committee’s investigation uncovered a significant amount of evidence that a number of security contractors working under Department of Defense contracts and subcontracts funneled U.S. taxpayer dollars to Afghan warlords and strongmen linked to murder, kidnapping, and bribery, as well as to Taliban and anti-Coalition activities. It also revealed wasted resources, dangerous performance failures, and wide gaps in government oversight that allowed such failures to persist. The report provides strong support for the decision by U.S. military commanders to take action against contracting practices that run contrary to the counterinsurgency mission."

"Are gender pay gaps more prevalent in some industries than others? Are women in management paying a price for being mothers? Are families who depend on the wages of Management Moms being penalized? The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, chaired by Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, held a hearing, titled New Evidence on the Gender Pay Gap for Women and Mothers in Management, on September 28, 2010, to explore these questions. At the hearing, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) presented their findings of a comprehensive industry-by-industry assessment of wage differences between men and women managers. This report also, for the first time, takes an in-depth look at the impact of motherhood on the wage gap among managers and its impact on family incomes." Related documents as follows:

• "In many countries of the world, traditions and social norms restrict women’s empowerment. The OECD Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) offers a tool to measure these hidden instances of gender discrimination. Drawing on 12 innovative indicators, the index captures the underlying reasons for existing gender gaps. SIGI indicators are based on an in-depth assessment of the situation of women and men in 124 low- and middle income countries, 102 of which are ranked based on their performance in social institutions."
  
• Targeting Inequity: The Gender Gap in U.S. Corporate Leadership, President and Chief Executive Officer, Catalyst, Inc.

Statement of Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director, The Economic Outlook and Fiscal Policy Choices, before the Committee on the Budget United States Senate September 28, 2010

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Regulatory Reform Implementation, Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., September 30, 2010

News release: [On September 22, 2010] the Federal Trade Commission told a Senate Subcommittee that it supports proposed legislation that would require many companies to use reasonable data security policies and procedures and require those companies to notify consumers when there is a security breach. In testimony before the Committee on Science, Commerce, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance, Maneesha Mithal, Associate Director for Privacy and Identity Protection at the FTC told the Subcommittee that problems with data security and breaches affect a wide array of both businesses and nonprofit organizations..
The testimony states that the agency suggests three additional measures that could be included in the proposed legislation to protect consumers. First, the provision that requires that companies notify consumers in the event of an information security breach should not be limited to entities that possess data in electronic form; second, the proposed requirements should be extended so that they apply to telephone companies; and third, the Commission suggests that the bill grant the agency rulemaking authority to determine circumstances under which providing free credit reports or credit monitoring may not be warranted."

House Armed Services Committee: The Terrorism, Unconventional Threats, and Capabilities Subcommittee met to receive testimony on Operating in the Digital Domain: Organizing the Military Departments for Cyber Operations, September 23, 2010.

"The recent announcement that the Department of Defense (DOD) suffered a major compromise of classified military computer networks has renewed discussions about what more DOD and the government should do to operate in the digital domain. The establishment of U.S. Cyber Command and the announcement of a new cybersecurity strategy by Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn are important milestones, but more needs to be done....the Subcommittee is looking to discuss three main objectives for this hearing:

• Understand the planned organizational structure for the Military Services cyber component organizations, and how they will present forces to U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM).
  
• Understand Service challenges to recruiting, retaining and training a cadre of cyber operations professionals.
  
• Discuss initiatives supporting Service-specific requirements for cyber operations."
  
• Links to prepared statements are here, here and here

Statement of Secretary Janet Napolitano before the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Nine Years After 9/11: Confronting the Terrorist Threat to the Homeland, September 22, 2010

News release: "As the Senate prepares to consider small business jobs legislation this week, a new report by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) shows that lending to small businesses has declined in 2010, small business hiring remains flat and the smallest firms continue to reduce hiring...The report, entitled Small Business Employment: Bank Lending Restrains Job Creation, uses an unpublished data series from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to update a May 2010 JEC report analyzing small business hiring between January 2001 and March 2010. The update, which includes data through May 2010, shows that small business hiring has not started to increase, although larger and mid-sized firms continue to increase hiring. Additionally, the report finds that the number of small business loans and the dollar value of these loans are both dropping. The number of loans made to small businesses, which peaked at 27.2 million in the second quarter of 2008, has fallen by over 4.8 million since then, a drop of 17.8 percent. The total value of those loans fell by $60 billion to approximately $650 billion."

News release: "In testimony before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee, the Federal Trade Commission explained how it protects consumers by applying well-established principles of competition to fast-changing technology markets. “Some have argued that there should be different rules for markets characterized by rapid technological development, but Congress drafted the antitrust laws in general terms to accommodate changing markets and new products, and the laws are flexible enough to meet the challenges of the high-tech era,” said Bureau of Competition Director Richard Feinstein, testifying on behalf of the FTC before the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy. The testimony discusses two recent FTC matters to illustrate the agency’s flexibility in investigating and bringing enforcement actions in high-tech markets. Last year, the FTC charged Intel Corporation with using unfair methods of competition dating back to 1999 to stifle competition. The agency recently reached a settlement with the company that will help restore lost competition and prevent Intel from suppressing competition in the future, while allowing the company to compete aggressively."

House Rules Changes: Sunlight’s Proposals for the 112th Congress, September 16, 2010
"The rules of the House and Senate have extraordinary influence. The Constitution, in granting each chamber the ability to “determine the rules of its proceedings,” has allowed Congress to create the evolving set of processes, norms and standards by which it functions. The rules define legislative order, construct a leadership power structure, lay out the committee system and establish rules for conduct and disclosure. The Rules of the House are routinely changed every two years at the beginning of each new Congress. While recent reforms have created more disclosure than ever before, congressional transparency reforms must be considered an imperative for congressional leadership. And the robust use of technology can make disclosure into a better ethics enforcer, a more effective educator and a strong arbiter of public policy. The House must redouble its commitment to transparency, and deepen the relationship between constituents and representatives. The 112th Congress can be the most open and accountable Congress ever, and online transparency can help Congress reach that goal. Sunlight has pored through the Rules of the House and identified a series of reforms. While this list applies specifically to the House, they can apply largely to the Senate as well. To learn more about our other solutions for a more open government beyond rules reform, such as greater campaign finance disclosure, lobbying reform and executive branch transparency, see our Policy Agenda."

News release: "A panel of retired senior U.S. military officers, former Members of Congress, National Guard generals and academics with expertise in responding to domestic disasters today delivered to the Congress and the secretary of defense a far-reaching report that details how defense officials can better support the nation's response to a major disaster on United States soil. The congressionally mandated panel, supported by staff from the RAND Corporation, told lawmakers and the secretary that the United States has an urgent need to implement changes in the way the Department of Defense plans for and would respond to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive (CBRNE) incident. In all, the report provides more than 40 recommendations for the president, the Congress, the secretary of defense, other federal Cabinet secretaries and governors about how to overcome obstacles that complicate the nation's ability to respond effectively to CBRNE incidents...The Advisory Panel on Department of Defense Capabilities for Support of Civil Authorities After Certain Incidents was mandated by Congress through the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2008, as amended by the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2009."

News release: "Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., took Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials to task Wednesday for the Department’s failure to complete a global architecture to detect the smuggling of nuclear materials, despite a five-year effort and the expenditure of $4 billion of taxpayer money. At a hearing entitled Nuclear Terrorism: Strengthening our Domestic Defenses, Part II, the Senators expressed their frustration and disappointment with the work of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO): its failure to develop a strategic plan to guide nuclear detection efforts by DHS agencies and the failure of its two largest acquisition programs - the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal (ASP) and the Cargo Advanced Automated Radiography Systems (CAARS) - that represent a combined investment of $400 million over five years."

• Combating Nuclear Smuggling: Inadequate Communication and Oversight Hampered DHS Efforts to Develop an Advanced Radiography System to Detect Nuclear Materials, GAO-10-1041T, September 15, 2010
  
• CRS report: The Advanced Spectroscopic Portal Program:
  Background and Issues for Congress
  
• Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) Overview

News release: "A coalition of 31 consumer, animal welfare and environmental groups, along with commercial and recreational fisheries associations and food retailers submitted a joint statement criticizing an announcement this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it will potentially approve the long-shelved AquAdvantage transgenic salmon as the first genetically engineered (GE) animal intended for human consumption. The engineered Atlantic salmon being considered was developed by AquaBounty Technologies, which artificially combined growth hormone genes from an unrelated Pacific salmon, (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) with DNA from the anti-freeze genes of an eelpout (Zoarces americanus). This modification causes production of growth-hormone year-round, creating a fish the company claims grows at twice the normal rate. This could allow factory fish farms to crowd fish into pens and still get high production rates."

Follow up to previous postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, this news release: "Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak released information from BP regarding its spending on corporate advertising and marketing following the April 20, 2010, explosion at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. At the suggestion of Representative Kathy Castor, on August 16, 2010, the Chairmen sent a letter to BP requesting details on the company’s spending on corporate advertising and marketing relating to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and relief, recovery, and restoration efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. [September 1, 2010] the Chairmen sent a letter to Representative Castor, summarizing BP’s response and acknowledging her leadership on this issue. According to BP, the company spent over $93 million on advertising between April 2010 and the end of July 2010 — more than three times the amount the company spent on advertising during the same period in 2009."

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Causes of the Recent Financial and Economic Crisis Before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, hearing, Too Big to Fail: Expectations and Impact of Extraordinary Government Intervention and the role of Systemic Risk in the Financial Crisis, Washington, D.C., September 2, 2010

Women and the Economy 2010: 25 Years of Progress But Challenges Remain, August 2010
Report by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee

House Financial Services Committee, Empowering Consumers: Can Financial Literacy Education Prevent Another Financial Crisis? August 24, 2010

Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports, via EPIC: "The Chairman and Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Committee, along with four other Senators, have sent a letter to the head of the US Marshal Service to ask why the federal agency stored more than 35,000 images from whole body imaging scans taken at the Orlando federal courthouse. The letter follows a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed by EPIC, in which the Marshal Service was forced to disclose the fact that it had stored body scanner images. EPIC has also filed an emergency motion in federal court to suspend the program, pending a thorough review of the airport body scanner program. For more information, see EPIC: Whole Body Imaging Technology and EPIC v. DHS (Suspension of Body Scanner Program). ">letter to the head of the US Marshal Service to ask why the federal agency stored more than 35,000 images from whole body imaging scans taken at the Orlando federal courthouse. The letter follows a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed by EPIC, in which the Marshal Service was forced to disclose the fact that it had stored body scanner images. EPIC has also filed an emergency motion in federal court to suspend the program, pending a thorough review of the airport body scanner program."

Conversion from the National Security Personnel System to Other Pay Schedules: Issues for Congress, July 15, 2010

"CDT submits the following chart as an addendum to the written testimony of Leslie Harris, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Democracy and Technology before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection on The BEST PRACTICES Act of 2010 and Other Federal Privacy Legislation on July 22, 2010. The chart compares some of the key provisions in both bills, and issues CDT’s recommendations about the approach we believe privacy legislation should take."

Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, this new United States Senate Report - President Obama and the Flawed Federal Response to the BP Disaster, An Oversight Report by Sen. James M. Inhofe, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, August 2010

2010 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund

News release: "On Thursday, July 29, the co-chairs of a select, bipartisan panel testified that their study of the Defense Department’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) found that without needed reform the All-Volunteer Force may be unsustainable and that the nation needs a new national security strategic planning process that better incorporates civilian departments and agencies. Former National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley and former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry met with the House Armed Services Committee about their now-public report, The QDR in Perspective: Meeting America’s National Security Needs in the 21st Century. In their testimony, they summed up the panel’s warning that:

• “The aging of the inventories and equipment used by the services, the decline in the size of the Navy, escalating personnel entitlements, increased overhead and procurement costs, and the growing stress on the force means that a train wreck is coming in the areas of personnel, acquisition, and force structure.”
  
• “In addition, our nation needs to build greater civil operational capacity to deploy civilians alongside our military and to partner with international bodies, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations in dealing with failed and failing states.”

The Federal Government's Responsibilities and Liabilities Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act - Testimony before the House Committee on the Budget, July 27, 2010

Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, this news release: "Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee, [on July 30, 2010] released a letter sent to National Incident Commander Thad Allen and documents revealing that the U.S. Coast Guard, tasked with limiting BP’s use of toxic dispersants during the Gulf oil spill disaster, repeatedly allowed the oil company to use excessive amounts of the chemical on the surface of the ocean. These exemptions were granted on a daily basis despite a prior federal directive that the company cease that tactic to combat the spill except in “rare” circumstances. The exemptions were also extended to Houma Unified Command, an oil spill response center in Houma, La., which consists of U.S. Coast Guard and other personnel and reports to the Federal On Scene Coordinator. In many cases, these applications appeared to be rubber stamped by the Coast Guard, including pre-approvals for weeks’ worth of unlimited use, as well as retroactive approvals for surface applications of dispersants for which BP failed to obtain prior permission. These actions by the Coast Guard appear to have largely undercut a directive it co-signed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that said that dispersant chemicals be used on the ocean’s surface only in “rare cases,” and only with advance approval. Rep. Markey's letter, based on an analysis conducted by the Energy and Environment Subcommittee staff, further showed that by comparing the amounts BP reported using to Congress to the amounts contained in the company’s requests for exemptions from the ban on surface dispersants it submitted to the Coast Guard, that BP often exceeded its own requests, with little indication that it informed the Coast Guard or that the Coast Guard attempted to verify whether BP was shooting past the approved volumes."

News release: "July 28, 2010, the House Financial Services Committee passed legislation to enable Americans to bet online and put an end to an inappropriate interference with their personal freedom. H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act of 2009 would establish a federal regulatory and enforcement framework under which Internet gambling operators could obtain licenses authorizing them to accept bets and wagers from individuals in the United States. The legislation comes in response to the enactment of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which restricted the use of the payments system for Americans who gamble online."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission testified [July 22, 2010] about FTC efforts to protect consumer privacy and commented on legislative proposals to improve privacy protections before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The testimony presented by David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, described the FTC’s law enforcement actions to hold companies accountable for protecting consumer privacy, focusing on data security, identity theft, children’s privacy, and protecting consumers from intrusive spam, spyware, and telemarketing. The testimony noted that the FTC has brought 28 actions charging businesses with failing to protect consumers’ personal information and 15 actions charging website operators with collecting information from children without parents’ consent. The FTC also has brought 15 spyware cases and dozens of actions challenging illegal spam, including an action against a rogue Internet Service Provider that resulted in a temporary 30 percent drop in spam worldwide. Finally, the FTC has brought 64 actions alleging violations of the Do Not Call Rule, resulting in violators paying almost $40 million in civil penalties and giving up nearly $18 million, including consumer redress."

News release: "Senator Chuck Grassley is pressing the Director of the FBI for additional information about its latest attempt to modernize its antiquated computer system. Grassley sent a letter to Director Robert Mueller following reports that a stop work order had been placed on both phases 3 and 4 of the Sentinel contract with Lockheed Martin. “The FBI has been trying to get its computer system up to speed for a decade. It appears that the third iteration of a modern FBI computer system is about to fail. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on a system that is little more than a fancy personnel management system. Taxpayers deserve an answer about the continued failure of the FBI and where the hundreds of millions of dollars went,” Grassley said. “I want to know exactly how much more taxpayer money the FBI intends to spend and when the system will be completed and in working order. The FBI needs a modern computing system, on time and on budget, for our intelligence community to stay ahead of the new and evolving threats facing our country...”

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., July 21, 2010

News release: "Senator Herb Kohl, Chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, held a hearing on continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), which provide separate housing for seniors who are able to live independently, who require help in an assisted living facility, and who require more intensive care in a nursing home. The Committee examined issues of financial stability and potential risks to consumers who pay large entrance fees – sometimes representing their life savings – in order to join such communities. One witness discussed his experience as a resident of a CCRC that went bankrupt, resulting in the loss of his refundable entrance deposit...As part of the hearing, Chairman Kohl released an investigative report based on the responses received to letters of inquiry sent to five CCRC providers earlier this year. The Committee found many CCRC ownership structures to be very complex, and that financial troubles at any level can have real consequences for individual residents. Unfortunately, financial statements of a parent entity owner or owners are not always included or available in the financial disclosures of a CCRC. Evaluating the merits of a CCRC and judging the risk involved with this type of investment is extremely challenging for an individual consumer without professional assistance. As part of the report, the Committee developed its own checklist for state regulators who wish to expand or improve their oversight of CCRCs...Chairman Kohl also released a study from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which found that regulatory approaches and the agencies responsible for the oversight of CCRCs vary considerably among states. In fact, 12 states do not have any CCRC-specific regulations. Consumer safeguards and protections regarding disclosure, asset reserves, and escrow requirements differ widely, and only 17 states require CCRCs to submit studies that assess their long-term viability. Finally, only 294 CCRCs (about 16 percent) are voluntarily accredited by the Continuing Care Accreditation Commission."

Governor Daniel K. Tarullo - International cooperation and financial regulatory modernization, Before the Subcommittee on Security and International Trade and Finance, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., July 20, 2010

The Volcker Rule - Obama’s economic adviser and his battles over the financial-reform bill, by John Cassidy: "Volcker believes that commercial banks, such as Citigroup and Wells Fargo, are worthy of receiving government assistance—and even, in extremis, taxpayer bailouts—because firms and consumers depend upon them for credit. In return for these enterprises being sheltered, they should refrain from risky activities such as proprietary trading and sponsoring hedge funds. “If you are going to be a commercial bank, with all the protections that implies, you shouldn’t be doing this stuff,” Volcker said to me. “If you are doing this stuff, you shouldn’t be a commercial bank.”

Follow up to Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act - HR 11-517 and Senate passage of the bill by a 60-39 vote on July 15, 2010, via WSJ: "Buried in the bill's 800-odd pages are the most sweeping regulatory changes for ordinary investors in decades, affecting everything from mutual funds and retirement plans to single-stock investments and other holdings. The legislation has the potential to make brokers more accountable to their clients, shine light on hedge funds and improve the transparency of the complex derivatives on which many mutual funds and pension plans rely to hedge their risks."

The Budget Reconciliation Process: The Senate's "Byrd Rule", July 02, 2010

"EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg testified [July 15, 2010]before the House Committee on Science and Technology regarding Planning for the Future of Cyber Attack Attribution. In his prepared statement, Mr. Rotenberg discussed "the risks and limitations of a mandatory Internet ID that may be favored by some as a way to address the risk of cyber attack." He explained how such a proposal would implicate human rights and online freedom, and questioned the constitutionality of such a measure. EPIC recommended that efforts continue to focus on improving security standards, deploying encryption, and requiring federal agencies to remain transparent as they develop cyber security policies."

News release: "Today, the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC), chaired by Representative Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), released the 2010 Joint Economic Report, which provides an overview of the state of the U.S. economy at the halfway point in 2010. The annual report, mandated by the requirements from the 1946 Employment Act, details the lasting effects of the Great Recession and the recovery now underway, and explains why additional actions are needed to support America’s recovering economy...The 2010 Joint Economic Report makes clear that the economy has a long road to tread before it fully heals, and that continuing to enact targeted, cost-effective policies will push the economy along and reduce the likelihood that it falls into an abyss. Key findings from the first half of 2010 include a rebound by manufacturers — which had reduced their payrolls substantially during the Great Recession — but in 2010 registered the largest six-month gain in employment since 1998."

News release: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. D-Mich.) today released the transcript of the Committee’s interview of Judge Jay Bybee, former assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during the administration of President George W. Bush and author of two of the Bush administration’s most infamous "torture memos." "This testimony reveals that many brutal techniques reportedly used in CIA interrogations were not authorized by the Justice Department – the author of these legal memos has now admitted this on the record," Conyers said. "These statements are highly relevant to the pending criminal investigation of detainee abuse and I have provided the Committee’s interview to the Justice Department and directed my staff to cooperate with any further requests for information."

Jay Bybee Interview Transcript and Related Materials

• Bybee Interview Transcript
  
• Bybee Interview Documents 1-4
  
• Bybee Interview Document 5
  
• Bybee Interview Documents 6-16
  
• Bybee Interview Documents 17-33

Executive Office of the President, Council of Economic Advisers - The Economic Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Fourth Quarterly Report, July 14, 2010

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Education have issued their annual report to Congress pursuant to the College Scholarship Fraud Prevention Act, describing their continued efforts to combat scholarship and financial aid fraud. Each year, millions of students seek help in financing their college education, and some fall prey to scholarship and financial aid scams that “guarantee” money for college in exchange for a fee. This report provides an update of the agencies’ activities to prevent and prosecute financial aid fraud, including the FTC’s law enforcement efforts and the agency’s consumer education campaign to help students, parents, educators, and financial aid administrators identify and avoid financial aid scams."

News release: "House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) unveiled today a newly expanded service from the Majority Leader’s Office that provides the latest internal information about what is happening on the House Floor: “Beginning today, all House Democratic staff will have access to regular updates on what’s happening on the House Floor through the ‘House Floor Feed,’ which will be available on DemCom, the House Democratic intranet. Blackberry access to the Floor Feed will be available soon. This regularly updated Floor Feed will provide a valuable service to Democratic Members and staff by helping to keep them informed on up-to-the-minute developments on the House Floor. I am committed to using all of the tools at our disposal to ensure the quickest and most effective communication between my office and the entire Democratic Caucus, and the Floor Feed is just another example of how we can best utilize technology as an informational tool.” Beginning a few months ago, this online resource was made available to Democratic Chiefs of Staff and Legislative Directors. Beginning today, access has been expanded to all House Democratic staff."

America Speaks Out: "This site was developed as part of an official effort to increase the dialogue between Americans and their Congress. Here, Americans are provided a new platform to share their priorities and ideas for a national policy agenda. As House Republicans, we are committed to our principles of limited, more accountable government; economic freedom; lower taxes; fiscal responsibility; protecting life, American values, and the Constitution; and providing for strong national security. This is an open forum, however, where all Americans are welcome to respectfully offer their opinions, regardless of party affiliation and whether we endorse them or not. It is our hope the active engagement of the American people will produce a robust debate that will aid in the construction of a new American agenda. This website is paid for with official funds of the Office of the House Minority Leader – no political or campaign funds have been used for any portion of the America Speaking Out project."

Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill see H.R.5503 - Securing Protections for the Injured from Limitations on Liability Act. Sponsor: Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14] (introduced 6/10/2010) Cosponsors (26). Latest Major Action: 7/1/2010. Passed/agreed to in House. Status: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. House Reports: 111-521 Part 1

Follow up to Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, House of Representatives, 111th Congress, 2nd Session, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act - House Report 111-517, dated June 29, 2010, ordered to be printed.

From Solicitor General to Supreme Court Nominee: Responsibilities, History, and the Nomination of Elena Kagan, by Susan Navarro Smelcer, Analyst on the Federal Judiciary. Kenneth R. Thomas, Legislative Attorney, June 23, 2010

Follow up to postings on Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the "CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimate that enacting H.R. 4173 would increase revenues by $17.1 billion over the 2011-2015 period and by $26.9 billion over the 2011-2020 period and increase direct spending by $14.9 billion and $26.9 billion, respectively, over the same periods. In total, CBO estimates those changes would reduce budget deficits by $2.3 billion over the 2011-2015 period. The changes in revenues and direct spending from enacting H.R. 4173 would have no net effect on budget deficits for the full 2011-2020 period. Because enacting the legislation would affect direct spending and revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. CBO has not prepared an estimate of the changes in discretionary spending that would arise from implementing the conference agreement."

House Financial Services Committee press release: "Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act - Create a Sound Economic Foundation to Grow Jobs, Protect Consumers,Rein in Wall Street, End Too Big to Fail, Prevent Another Financial Crisis: "Americans have faced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Millions have lost their jobs, businesses have failed, housing prices have dropped, and savings were wiped out. The failures that led to this crisis require bold action. We must restore responsibility and accountability in our financial system to give Americans confidence that there is a system in place that works for and protects them. We must create a sound foundation to grow the economy and create jobs."

• BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DODD-FRANK WALL STREET REFORM AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT
  
• H.R. 4173, Conference Base Text
  
• H.R. 4173 Side by Side House - Senate Comparison
  
• H.R. 4173
  
• Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
  
• Related postings on financial system

May it Please the Senate: An Empirical Analysis of the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings of Supreme Court Nominees, 1939-2009, Lori A. Ringhand, University of Georgia School of Law and Paul M. Collins Jr., University of North Texas, June 25, 2010. UGA Legal Studies Research Paper No. 10-12

Legislating Consumer Privacy Online & Off: Last month, Congressmen Rick Boucher and Cliff Stearns, respectively Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, released a discussion draft of legislation "to assure the privacy of information about individuals both on the Internet and offline." This is the most significant movement in over half a decade to craft privacy rules for consumers in the digital age."

The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 - This webpage links to facts sheets, summaries, comparisons and other relevant documents on this controversial legislation.

News release: "House Financial Services Chairman Frank, on behalf of the House conferees, released the House offer on the titles listed below. The issues will be subject to debate when the House-Senate Conference Committee convenes in room SD-106, Dirksen Senate Office Building, at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow.

News release: "Today House and Senate conferees again met on the bill to bring accountability to Wall Street. The bill creates a new consumer financial protection watchdog, ends too big to fail bailouts, sets up an early warning system to predict and prevent the next crisis, and brings transparency and accountability to exotic instruments such as derivatives. A list of House and Senate offers and counter offers can be found by clicking here."

Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, this press release: "Today Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.) released an internal BP document showing that the company's own analysis believed that a worst-case scenario, based on damage to the well bore, could result in 100,000 barrels of oil per day. In the document, BP stated: If BOP and wellhead are removed and if we have incorrectly modeled the restrictions – the rate could be as high as ~ 100,000 barrels per day up the casing or 55,000 barrels per day up the annulus (low probability worst cases). This number is in sharp contrast to BP’s initial claim that the leak was just 1,000 barrels a day. At the time this document was made available to Congress, BP claimed the leak was 5,000 barrels a day, and told Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the worst case scenario was be 60,000 barrels a day. This document tells a different story."

News release includes links to referenced documents: "Edward “Ted” Moore Kennedy served as U.S. senator for the state of Massachusetts from November 7, 1962 until his death. He was a long-time leader in the Democratic Party and candidate for that party’s presidential nomination. During his senate tenure, Kennedy served in several senior leadership positions, including stints as the chair of the Judiciary Committee, the Labor and Human Resource Committee, and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Kennedy was born in Dorchester—a subdivision of the city of Boston, Massachusetts—and was educated at Harvard College and the University of Virginia’s School of Law. The son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy was the brother of President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. He died on August 25, 2009 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. This release consists of material from seven FBI files—three Headquarters files and four field division files, totaling more then 2,200 pages. It covers the FBI’s relationship with Senator Kennedy from 1961 to 1985. At no point do these files suggest that the FBI investigated Senator Kennedy for a criminal violation or as a security threat. The bulk of this material concerns FBI investigation of threats of violence and other extortion claims against Senator Kennedy and other public officials."

FOIA Facts - Ideas for Faster FOIA Processing: Scott A. Hodes notes that in the current Congress there are bills pending that would create a commission to come up with ideas for faster FOIA processing. He contends that by taking those ideas, along with a few days of congressional oversight hearings to solicit other opinions, Congress would have ample information to create an actual bill that would implement faster FOIA processing now rather than wait for a "commission" to come up with these same ideas.

Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, briefing memo for Hearing entitled Drilling Down on America’s Energy Future: Safety, Security and Clean Energy: "The United States’ dependence on foreign oil has also increased over time. In 1995, the United States imported 45 percent of its oil. By 2008, that number had increased to 57 percent. As a result, the U.S. economy spent roughly $900 billion on petroleum products in 2008. While prices and consumption have decreased in 2009 as a result of the economic downturn, the United States still imported nearly 52 percent of the oil it consumed last year. The United States possesses only 2 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves but consumes roughly 25 percent of the world’s oil."

Follow up to Frank Announces House Offer to Base Text on Private Funds, Credit Rating Agencies, Thrifts and Insurance, this new announcement: "Chairman Frank, on behalf of the House conferees, released the House offer on the titles listed below. The issues will be subject to debate when the House-Senate Conference Committee convenes in room 2128 Rayburn at 11:00 a.m. [June 16, 2010].

• Title 9, subtitles A, B, F, H, I and J of base text: Investor protection/regulatory improvements
  
• Title 9, subtitles E and G of base text: Executive compensation/corporate governance
  
• Title 11 of base text: Fed audit and governance, and emergency liquidity provision
  
• Related postings on financial system

News release: "Chairman Frank, on behalf of the House conferees, released the House offer on the titles listed below. The issues will be subject to debate when the House-Senate Conference Committee convenes June 15, 2010. The issues for tomorrow’s offer:

• Title 4 of base text: Private Funds
  
• Title 9, subtitle C of base text: credit rating agencies
  
• Title 3 of base text: OTS/OCC merger; thrift charter
  
• Title 5 of base text: Insurance
  
• Related postings on financial system

Follow up to posting, Coast Guard R. Admiral Gives BP 48 Hours to Identify Leak Containment Capacity, this new letter inclusive of graphs, from BP responding to the Admiral's directive that "sets out the plans for rebuilding additional capacity and redundancy for the containment of oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill..."

News release: "Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) and Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, introduced H.R. 5498, The WMD Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2010. This legislation will make progress toward implementing the recommendations of the WMD Commission and will improve U.S. efforts to prevent, deter, detect, and respond to an attack by a weapon of mass destruction."

• Bill Summary
  
• Bill Chart
  
• WMD Commission Comments
  
• Bill Section by Section Outline

News release: "The American Civil Liberties Union marks the 47th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act with a call for the Senate to pass S. 182, the Paycheck Fairness Act. President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 into law 47 years ago Thursday, prohibiting wage discrimination based on sex. However, since its passage, loopholes and weak remedies have watered down the Act’s effectiveness. Forty-seven years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act, women still make, on average, 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. The Paycheck Fairness Act would provide a much needed update to the Equal Pay Act, closing loopholes in the current law, strengthening weak remedies and taking steps to finally close the wage gap."

Testimony by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke - Economic and financial conditions and the federal budget, before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., June 9, 2010

News release: "Organizations in the financial services sector have deployed at least 1,447 former federal employees to lobby Congress and federal agencies since the beginning of 2009, according to a joint analysis of federal disclosure records and other data released today by Public Citizen and the Center for Responsive Politics. This small army of registered financial services sector lobbyists includes at least 73 former members of Congress, of whom 17 served on the banking committees of either the U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate. At least 66 industry lobbyists worked for these committees as staffers, while 82 additional lobbyists once worked for congressional members who currently serve on these key committees."

Health Costs and the Federal Budget, May 2010. CBO Director Doug Elmendorf's presentation to the Institute of Medicine.

Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill this news release: "Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today continued to raise questions about BP’s potential motivations to low-ball the flow rate and size of the spill, and released new documents showing BP knew the spill could have been much bigger than they claimed. The report, conducted by the National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group, found that the spill was likely between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels a day, far above the 1,000-5,000 barrels a day BP estimated for most of the spill’s duration. Rep. Markey has engaged with numerous independent scientists on this issue who claimed the spill was much larger than BP’s estimates...Yesterday Rep. Markey pressed this point with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, citing documents he obtained from BP that showed BP knew as early as a week after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that the spill could have been much higher than their initial estimate of 1,000 barrels. Secretary Salazar agreed with Rep. Markey that BP could have a financial interest in underestimating the size of the spill.

News release: "Today, Chairman Henry A. Waxman, Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, and Ranking Member Joe Barton sent a letter to Eric Schmidt, Chairman & CEO of Google, regarding recent reports of data collection over private Wi-Fi networks in conjunction with Google's Street View product. The Committee is concerned about the accuracy and completeness of Google's public explanations and request information regarding the nature and use of the private data collected, the underlying technology of the Street View vehicle fleet, and the impact on consumer privacy."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission submitted a statement today to the U.S. Senate describing the agency’s work to protect consumers from false or misleading claims about dietary supplements. This work includes law enforcement actions, coordination with the Food and Drug Administration, and consumer education. Submitted to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, the statement noted that the U.S. dietary supplement industry had $25 billion in sales last year, a 6 percent increase over the previous year. “[M]arket analysts suggest that the downturn in the economy has actually led to increased spending on supplements as consumers attempt to manage their own healthcare and avoid expensive doctor visits and prescription medications. Given this trend, it is more critical than ever that the Commission work to ensure that consumers are getting truthful and accurate information, backed by solid scientific evidence, about dietary supplements.”

Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, this news release: "Today House Energy and Commerce Chairmen Henry A. Waxman and Bart Stupak sent a memo to Committee members summarizing the information presented by BP to Committee staff on the progress of its internal investigation of the causes of the blowout and oil spill. The information from BP identifies several new warning signs of problems. According to BP there were three flow indicators from the well before the explosion. One was 51 minutes before the explosion when more fluid began flowing out of the well than was being pumped in. Another flow indicator was 41 minutes before the explosion when the pump was shut down for a “sheen” test, yet the well continued to flow instead of stopping and drill pipe pressure also unexpectedly increased. Then, 18 minutes before the explosion, abnormal pressures and mud returns were observed and the pump was abruptly shut down. The data suggests that the crew may have attempted mechanical interventions at that point to control the pressure, but soon after, the flow out and pressure increased dramatically and the explosion took place. Further, BP’s preliminary findings indicate that there were other events in the 24 hours before the explosion that require further inquiry."

The Budgetary Impact and Subsidy Costs of the Federal Reserve’s Actions During the Financial Crisis, May 2010

Senate Passes Sweeping Financial Reform Bill, May 2010: "On May 20, 2010, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to restructure the
financial services regulatory system by a vote of 59 to 39. As discussed in this briefing paper, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 (S 3217, the Senate version of H.R. 4173) would institute far-reaching reforms, including the creation of an independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau housed within the Federal Reserve Board and new federal government power to wind down large, failing financial institutions. The bill would establish a nine-member Financial Services Oversight Council to oversee systemic risk, strengthen regulation of financial holding companies and abolish the Office of Thrift Supervision, transferring its functions to the Fed, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp."

News release: "In testimony before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government of the Committee on Appropriations, the Federal Trade Commission today described the agency’s continuing work to promote competition and protect American consumers, including initiatives to stop fraud targeting financially distressed consumers, protect privacy, and prevent anticompetitive practices such as “pay-for-delay” in the pharmaceutical industry, which costs consumers $3.5 billion a year in higher drug costs. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz summarized the FTC’s FY 2011 budget request, noting that strong support from Congress has made the agency more effective in its consumer protection efforts. The testimony stated that, in the past year, the FTC has brought almost 40 law enforcement actions to stop scams that prey on consumers suffering from the financial downturn, and the agency is also engaged in rulemaking and consumer education efforts related to financial services. In the financial services area alone, the FTC has filed more than 100 actions over the past five years, and obtained nearly $500 million in redress for consumers in the past 10 years."

Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, this news release: "Following a demand from Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) for a live feed of the BP oil spill to be made publicly available on the web, BP said they would release the feed and it will be shown on Rep. Markey’s committee website at www.globalwarming.house.gov. [Note: traffic volume has made access intermittent.] “This may be BP’s footage, but it’s America’s ocean. Now anyone will be able to see the real-time effects the BP spill is having on our ocean,” said Rep. Markey, who conducted a briefing today with independent scientists where he reiterated the call for a video feed. “This footage will aid analysis by independent scientists blocked by BP from coming to see the spill.” Markey sent letters earlier [May 19, 2010] to BP America’s CEO Lamar McKay asking for the footage to be made public on BP’s website. If BP could not host the footage, Rep. Markey offered to host it on his website free of charge. “BP is going to have to pay for the cleanup of this spill and the long-term damage. Hosting this video on our website is the only freebie they’re going to get,” Rep. Markey said."

Project of Government Oversight "As the Senate continues debating legislation to reform the financial regulatory system, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) has issued a new report examining a wide range of regulatory and management failures at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and offering recommendations for reform that are currently lacking in the Senate’s bill. The SEC has come under intense criticism of late, especially with the release of reports by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) finding that the Commission failed to act on overwhelming evidence of the massive Ponzi schemes orchestrated by Bernie Madoff and R. Allen Stanford. Rep. Issa’s report connects these and other recent scandals to a host of systemic problems that are hindering the SEC’s regulatory effectiveness."

Follow up to previous postings on Bisphenol A , this News release: "Senator Dianne Feinstein stood with environmental health advocates today on Capitol Hill to release a new report that demonstrates alarming levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in common canned foods. BPA is a synthetic sex hormone and exposure to low doses has been linked to abnormal behavior, diabetes and heart disease, infertility, developmental and reproductive harm, and obesity, which raises the risk of early puberty, a known risk factor for breast cancer. Senator Feinstein has introduced legislation that would ban BPA in cans, in addition to other food and beverage containers. The Senator is hopeful that the Food Safety Act will include language that protects consumers from BPA exposure. “We found in our analysis that if someone is eating just one meal with at least one canned food product, their levels of BPA are as much as those that have been shown to cause health effects in laboratory animal studies,” says Bobbi Chase Wilding of Clean New York, co-author, of No Silver Lining, An Investigation Into Bisphenol A in Canned Foods, by The National Workgroup for Safe Markets, a coalition of U.S. public health- and environmental health-focused organizations. “Six states have taken crucial first steps this year to get this hormone mimicking chemical out of our children’s food, but this report shows that there is much more to be done. Senator Feinstein’s bill will protect much more of our food from this toxic contamination,” said U.S. Public Interest Research Group Public Health Advocate Elizabeth Hitchcock..."Eating common canned foods is exposing consumers to levels of bisphenol A (BPA) equal to levels shown to cause health problems in laboratory animals, according to a new study released today by The National Work Group for Safe Markets, a coalition of public health and environmental health groups. The study, No Silver Lining, tested food from 50 cans from 19 US states and one Canadian province for BPA contamination. Over 90% of the cans tested had detectable levels of BPA, some at higher levels than have been detected in previous studies. The canned foods tested were brand name fish, fruits, vegetables, beans, soups, tomato products, sodas, and milks, which together represent “real-life” meal options for a wide range of North American consumers. The cans were purchased from retail stores and were chosen from report participants’ pantry shelves, and sent to an independent laboratory for testing. One can of DelMonte green beans had the highest levels of BPA ever found in canned food, at 1,140 parts per billion."

"The American Library Association (ALA) Washington Office has released the association’s 2009 Legislative Scorecards for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. The Legislative Scorecards outline votes and support of legislation that is important to and has an impact on the library community. The ALA provides the scorecard as a tool to ALA members for gauging their elected official’s support of library related legislation. The 2009 scorecards are available here."

News release: "The Financial Stability Oversight Board (Oversight Board on May 13, 2010) issued its latest quarterly report to Congress on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA), covering the period from January 1 to March 31. The report highlights the activities of the Oversight Board during the first quarter. It also presents the Oversight Board's evaluation of the effects thus far of the policies and programs implemented by Treasury under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). In addition, the report describes the programs, policies, administrative actions, and financial commitments of the Treasury Department under the TARP during the last quarter. In the report, the Oversight Board indicates its belief that the accumulated effects of Treasury’s actions under TARP contributed significantly to continuing recovery in many financial markets during the first quarter, although credit volumes continued to exhibit weakness both for nonfinancial businesses and households. Further, the Oversight Board says the actions taken by Treasury under TARP, together with those taken by the Federal Reserve, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, continued to aid the housing market and mortgage borrowers during the quarter. Still, housing market conditions remained difficult."

News release: "Today the President submitted the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) – an arms control agreement with Russia that he signed last month in Prague -- to the United States Senate. Before the Treaty can be ratified, the Senate must provide its advice and consent by a two-thirds majority...In addition to the Treaty, the President also sent a report to Congress required by last year’s National Defense Authorization Act on our plan to modernize our nuclear weapons complex and the strategic systems used to deliver nuclear weapons (long-range missiles and bombers) over the next decade. This plan will include a projection for the funds needed over the next ten years to meet these modernization requirements. The report is largely classified, but because of the public’s interest in the issue, we are releasing an unclassified summary that highlights how we plan to reduce our forces but maintain a nuclear triad (land- and sea-based ballistic missiles and long-range bombers) under the Treaty. The U.S. military strongly favors the Treaty in large part because it allows the United States significant flexibility in how we structure and deploy our nuclear forces – including retaining this triad – to meet nuclear deterrence requirements."

• The President’s message to the Senate
  
• Fact Sheet on the “1251 report,” and
  
• Key quotations on the New START Treaty
  
• See also CRS: Strategic Arms Control After START: Issues and Options - March 4, 2010
  
• CRS - The New START Treaty: Central Limits and
  Key Provisions, May 3, 2010

Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, Hearing on "Inquiry into the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Coast Oil Spill", Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations 12 May 2010, to "examine what caused the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and the oil spill now spreading across the Gulf, in order to help prevent future incidents and inform the direction of our national energy policy." Link to all the documents, with selected references as follows:

• From Chairman Waxman's Opening Statement: "BP, one of the world’s largest oil companies, assured Congress and the public that it could operate safely in deep water and that a major oil spill was next to impossible. We now know those assurances were wrong.
  Halliburton, one of the world’s largest oil services companies, says that it had secured the well through a procedure called “cementing” and that the well had passed a key pressure test. But we now know this is an incomplete account. The well did pass positive pressure tests, but there is evidence that it may not have passed crucial negative pressure tests. According to a senior BP official, significant pressure discrepancies were observed in at least two of these tests, which were conducted just hours before the explosion.
  Transocean, one of the world’s largest operators of drilling rigs, says it has no reason to believe that the rig’s failsafe device, called a blowout preventer, was not fully operational. But we have learned from Cameron, the manufacturer of the blowout preventer, that the device had a leak in a crucial hydraulic system and a defectively configured ram."
  
• BP - What Could Have Happened?
  
• BP - What We Know
  
• Halliburton - Last 2 hours before end of transmission
  
• BP - Blowout Preventer Testing Memo
  
• Transocean - Deepwater Horizon BOP Assurance Analysis, March 2001
  
• Transocean - Surface BOP Operations from Floating Vessels
  
• BP - Regional Oil Spill Response Plan
  
• Transocean - Nontank Vessel Response Plan
  
• Transocean - Major Accident Hazard Risk Analysis Deepwater Horizon, August, 2004

• H.R. 3590, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, May 2010 - Additional Information on the Potential Discretionary Costs of Implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
• H.R. 3590, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, May 11, 2010 - Additional information about potential effects on discretionary spending, letter to the Honorable Jerry Lewis
• See also H.R.3590 - Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and related postings on health care reform

EPIC: "The Senate unanimously passed the Faster FOIA Act of 2010, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX), that will establish a 16-member commission to determine methods for reducing delays in processing FOIA requests. Government reports reveal substantial delays in disclosing records subject to the open government law. The legislation seeks to improve the processing of FOIA requests. EPIC frequently uses the FOIA to obtain information about government programs that impact privacy rights."

News release: "Two days after the failed Times Square terrorist was arrested, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., Wednesday heard top New York City officials advocate for barring terrorist suspects from purchasing firearms. At an oversight hearing, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told the Committee that the sale of guns to anyone on a terrorist watchlist should be banned."

News release: "A total of 2,376 federal and state applications for orders authorizing the interception of wire, oral or electronic communications, known as wiretaps, was reported in 2009. The number of applications for orders by federal authorities was 663; the number of applications reported by state prosecuting officials was 1,713. No applications were denied. The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 requires the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to report to Congress the number and nature of federal and state applications for wiretap orders. The 2009 Wiretap Report covers intercepts concluded between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009."

News release: "Today the Subcommittee holds the fourth in our series of hearings to explore some of the causes and consequences of the financial crisis. These hearings are the culmination of nearly a year and a half of investigation. The freezing of financial markets and collapse of financial institutions that sparked our investigation are not just a matter of numbers on a balance sheet. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their homes and their businesses in the recession that the crisis sparked, the worst economic decline since the Great Depression. Behind every number we cite are American families who are still suffering the effects of a man-made economic catastrophe. Our Subcommittee’s goal is to construct a record of the facts in order to deepen public understanding of what went wrong; to inform the ongoing legislative debate about the need for financial reform; and to provide a foundation for building better defenses to protect Main Street from the excesses of Wall Street."

The Gavel Blog: "Today, the Office of the Clerk beta launched HouseLive.gov — a streaming video feed of the House Floor. The site also hosts searchable and downloadable video archives going back to the start of the 111th Congress (January 6, 2009) and has a highlighted archive for events like the State of the Union and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s address to Congress last year."

"On Wednesday, April 21, 2010 the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing entitled The Washington Metro System: Safety, Service and Stability, to examine the challenges facing the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) as it transitions under new leadership. The Committee addressed WMATA’s efforts to improve safety and service in the wake of a spate of accidents that have occurred within the Metro system over the past year; the short and long-term solutions for addressing the budget shortfall currently confronting WMATA; and the process for selecting a permanent General Manager for WMATA and establishing effective long term leadership."

News release: "The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released several exhibits that will be among those discussed on Tuesday at the fourth of its hearings on the causes and consequences of the financial crisis. The exhibits are available at this link. Using Goldman Sachs as a case study, the April 27 hearing will focus on the role of investment banks in contributing to the worst U.S. economic crisis since the 1930s, resulting in the foreclosure of millions of homes, the shuttering of businesses, and the loss of millions of American jobs. The Subcommittee, whose Chairman is Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and whose Ranking Republican is Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has conducted a nearly year and a half investigation into the 2008 financial crisis."

Follow up to previous postings on childhood and adolescent obesity, this new report: Too Fat to Fight - Retired Military Leaders Want Junk Food Out of America’s Schools. A report by Mission: Readiness, Military Leaders for Kids, April 2010.

Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, April 20, 2010 - Quarterly Report to Congress

News release: "Today the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) released its monthly state-by-state report Understanding the Economy: State-by-State Snapshots, featuring key economic indicators for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report has been updated to include state data released April 16 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and is the fourth installment of JEC’s State-by-State Economic Snapshots series. The first report was released in January 2010. The updated reports show that in many states, the economy is growing, especially in the area of private-sector employment. In March, twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia saw increases in private sector employment, eleven states saw increases in February and March, and seven states experienced increases in private sector employment in all three months in the first quarter of 2010."

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke - Lessons from the failure of Lehman Brothers Before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., April 20, 2010: "The Federal Reserve fully understood that the failure of Lehman would shake the financial system and the economy. However, the only tool available to the Federal Reserve to address the situation was its ability to provide short-term liquidity against adequate collateral; and, as I noted, Lehman already had access to our emergency credit facilities. It was clear, though, that Lehman needed both substantial capital and an open-ended guarantee of its obligations to open for business on Monday, September 15. At that time, neither the Federal Reserve nor any other agency had the authority to provide capital or an unsecured guarantee, and thus no means of preventing Lehman's failure existed."

Distrust, Discontent, Anger and Partisan Rancor The People and Their Government, April 18, 2010

Business Journal: "Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America Home Loans, testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday about the housing crisis and the steps BofA is taking to modify troubled mortgages. And she painted a bleak picture, according to her prepared testimony. Some numbers [from her remarks at the House Committee on Financial Services Committee hearing, Second Liens and Other Barriers to Principal Reduction as an Effective Foreclosure Mitigation Program]:

• 1.4 million borrowers, or 10 percent of the entire BofA residential mortgage portfolio, are more than 60 days delinquent.
  
• More than 16,000 BofA employees are dedicated to helping troubled borrowers work out a solution.
  
• BofA has taken $10.4 billion in write-downs tied to mortgages over the past two years."
  
• Related postings on financial system

News release: "As part of the unprecedented accountability and transparency provisions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) was charged with providing to Congress quarterly reports on the effects of the Recovery Act on overall economic activity, and on employment in particular. Today we released our third report, with an assessment of the effects of the Act through the first quarter of 2010."

H. Res. 1222 supporting the goals and ideals of National Library Week: April 13, 2010 Congressional Record - House H2465

Too Big to Fail after FDICIA, Larry D. Wall, Economic Review, Vol. 95, No. 1, 2010

"The United States Congress established the Days of Remembrance as our nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust and created the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a permanent living memorial to the victims. This year Holocaust Remembrance Day is Sunday, April 11. The Museum designated Stories of Freedom: What You Do Matters as the theme for the 2010 observance. In accordance with its Congressional mandate, the Museum is responsible for leading the nation in commemorating the Days of Remembrance, and for encouraging and sponsoring appropriate observances throughout the United States. Observances and remembrance activities can occur during the week of Remembrance that runs from the Sunday before Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) through the following Sunday (view the Remembrance Day Calendar). Days of Remembrance are observed by state and local governments, military bases, workplaces, schools, churches, synagogues, and civic centers."

Preliminary Staff Report: The Community Reinvestment Act and the Mortgage Crisis - Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC)| April 7, 2010: "The purpose of this preliminary staff report is to provide background on the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Section I provides background on the CRA. Section II discusses the evidence on CRA’s contribution to an increase in the number of risky mortgages originated."

Preliminary Staff Report: The Mortgage Crisis - Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC)| April 7, 2010: "The purpose of this preliminary staff report is to describe the recent mortgage crisis, which entailed a dramatic drop in home prices beginning in 2006 and a sharp rise in mortgage defaults beginning in 2007. Section I describes the origination of mortgages over the two decades leading up to the crisis. Section II documents some evidence on the expansion in subprime and alt-A lending in the 2000s. Section III describes the increase in home ownership over this period. Section IV describes the unprecedented run-up in home prices from 1998 to 2006 and their subsequent steep decline. Section V describes the increase in mortgage defaults from 2007 to 2009. Section VI briefly discusses evidence on the reasons for this increase in mortgage defaults."

Preliminary Staff Report: Government Sponsored Enterprises and the Financial Crisis Financial - Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) | April 7, 2010: "This preliminary staff report provides information on the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA or Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC or Freddie Mac), the companies' attributes as government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), and their linkages to the larger financial system. As losses at the two companies mounted, the government placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship on September 6, 2008. At that point the two GSEs together held in portfolio or guaranteed through mortgage-backed securities (MBS) some $5.2 trillion of mortgages,1 or over 40 percent of the $12 trillion residential mortgage market."

Preliminary Staff Report: The Role of the Federal Reserve in Banking Supervision and Regulation, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) | April 7, 2010: "The purpose of this preliminary staff report is to provide a brief overview of the role of the
Federal Reserve in banking supervision and regulation. The first section describes the structure of the Federal Reserve and the extent of the Federal Reserve’s supervisory role as it stood at the beginning of the financial crisis. Section II describes the history of banking supervision and regulation in the United States, with a focus on the deregulatory environment that prevailed in the 1990s and early 2000s. Section III describes the Federal Reserve’s approach to systemic risk in the recent period. Section IV discusses Federal Reserve supervision of mortgage lending activity."

Preliminary Staff Report: Securitization and the Mortgage Crisis, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) | April 7, 2010

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission - Hearings & Testimony - Subprime Lending and Securitization and Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), April 7, 2010

Federal Trade Commission Enforcement of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: The Thirty-Second Annual Report to Congress: Commission Initiatives During 2009 To Curtail Illegal Debt Collection Practices, Including Summaries of the Types of Consumer Complaints Received, Recent Developments in Commission Law Enforcement, and Commission Consumer and Industry Education and Policy Initiatives (March 2010).

Deforestation and Climate Change, Ross W. Gorte, Specialist in Natural Resources Policy, Pervaze A. Sheikh, Specialist in Natural Resources Policy - March 24, 2010

News release: "House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) released a report examining the rebranding of 13 ACORN affiliated organizations following reports that ACORN had disbanded. The report includes evidence of a recent business transaction between ACORN and the organization rebranded as Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) which details how membership lists, computer equipment, employees and other assets will be transferred from ACORN to the new organization."

Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports, via EPIC: "In response to a Congressional inquiry, led by Congressman Bennie Thompson, the Transportation Security Agency acknowledged that images on body scanner machines would be recorded for "testing, training, and evaluation purposes." The TSA also did not dispute that test mode could be activated in airports, but said this "would" not happen. As part of an ongoing lawsuit, EPIC had previously obtained TSA documents describing the machines' capabilities to store and transmit detailed images of travelers' naked bodies."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission today reported to Congress that it is getting the word out about Internet safety for children by aggressively promoting a new booklet, Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online, to schools, police and sheriff’s departments, and PTAs nationwide. Net Cetera explains to parents and their children how to deal with issues such as social networking, cyberbullying, using mobile phones safely, and protecting the family computer from badware. The booklet is practical, plain-language, and value-neutral, so all parents – regardless of whether they are technologically savvy – can use it to help their kids make better decisions about online behavior. It is the most recent addition to the OnGuardOnline.gov consumer education campaign, which helps people guard against Internet fraud, secure their computers, and protect their privacy."

Understanding the Economy: Long-Term Unemployment in the African American Community "is the first in a series of JEC reports examining the unemployment situation among several demographic groups, including African Americans, Hispanics, youth, and women. Prepared by the Joint Economic Committee’s Majority staff, the report draws from previously unpublished data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and found that though African Americans make up 11.5 percent of the labor force, they account for 17.8 percent of the unemployed, 20.3 percent of those unemployed for more than six months, and 22.1 percent of the workers unemployed for a year or more."

News release: "[March 25, 2010] U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) announced the formation of the bipartisan Transparency Caucus which will serve as a resource for Members of Congress on bipartisan open government initiatives. The caucus will promote legislation that requires federal information to be freely accessible, as well as advocate for new initiatives that support transparency...With significant advances in technology, it is now possible for the Federal government to offer searchable, sortable, downloadable information online that citizens can access to see for themselves the results of government programs. The Caucus will seek to move current practices forward and encourage easier access for the American public through education, legislation, and oversight."

• Principles of the Congressional Transparency Caucus
  
• Dear Colleague letter to Members of the Transparency Caucus
  
• Transparency in Government Act H.R. 4983 - a bill that would bring about unprecedented access and accountability to the federal government including new lobbying restrictions, creating the first searchable and sortable earmark database, and increased oversight on reporting federal