Todd Gaziano has outlined at the Foundry the legal doctrine of executive privilege that President Obama has asserted in the congressional investigation of Operation Fast and Furious. The most important part of that doctrine to understand is that a President cannot assert executive privilege for the purpose of hiding wrongdoing …
President Obama channeled his inner Richard Nixon with his exercise of executive privilege to shield Attorney General Eric Holder from transparency. Whether the assertion is valid is a question to be resolved between Congress and the President, yet this authority is something that can be waived by the President if …
Since 1993, the Census Bureau has made available detailed data about federal government expenditures in its Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR). The 2012 report will be the last one. Through the CFFR website, the public had access to such data as federal expenditures made at the county level for programs …
Citizens across America will have a powerful tool to hold their elected leaders accountable come January. The House of Representatives today adopted new standards that increase transparency and improve access to legislative data. All of the information will be publicly available in a searchable format on one website. “With the adoption of …
Give two U.S. Senators credit for trying to do something about the smoke-and-mirrors games in Washington. The “Honest Budget Act” by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) goes to the heart of public distrust of Congress, namely the dishonest budget gimmicks and accounting tricks. The public is …
Politico reported what many have feared about the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction in a story titled “Supercommittee operating in secret.” Members of this committee are not disclosing details of negotiations on legislation to the press or the American public. The supercommittee has become supersecret about most of what …
Roll Call carries op-eds today from the Ripon Society and Heritage debating the merits of Super Committee transparency. Ripon’s Lou Zickar thinks the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction would benefit from privacy. I argue that’s exactly the wrong approach for the most powerful committee in congressional history. As the …
The newly formed Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction has its 12 members, but beyond that there’s little known about how exactly it will operate. Congressional leaders have promised transparency of its deliberations. And as of now, though, only the first meeting and final report are required to be publicly …
