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“As someone who supported both the House and Senate versions of FOIA reform, I’m disappointed that the House ran out of time to address concerns in the Senate bill and the Senate declined to approve a House passed version, which had only minimal differences,” said Chairman Issa. “The reality is that, even today, the Senate could still send a bipartisan FOIA bill to the President if they were willing to accept some minimal differences.”

“As one of the architects of ObamaCare, Jonathan Gruber is in a unique position to shed light on the ‘lack of transparency’ surrounding the passage of the President’s health care law, however he has so far been unwilling to fully comply with the Oversight Committee’s repeated requests,” Chairman Issa said in a statement. “This week, Dr. Gruber repeatedly refused to answer several key questions, including the amount of taxpayer funds he received for his work on ObamaCare. The ...

“The FOIA Improvement Act will strengthen FOIA, the cornerstone open government law,” Issa and Cummings said in a joint statement. “The House unanimously passed companion legislation, H.R. 1211, earlier this year. The FOIA Improvement Act is a bipartisan bill that, after last night’s passage by the Senate, deserves to be taken up by the House and sent to the President.”

Key findings: ·  The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the primary federal regulator of over 4,500 banks, targeted legal industries.  FDIC’s explicitly intended its list of “high-risk merchants” to influence banks’ business decisions.   FDIC policymakers debated ways to ensure that bank officials saw the list and “get the message.” · Documents ...

“It’s appalling that our government is working around the law to vindictively attack businesses they find objectionable,” said Chairman Issa. “Internal FDIC documents confirm that Operation Choke Point is an extraordinary abuse of government power. In the most egregious cases, federal bureaucrats injected personal moral judgments into the regulatory process. Such practices are totally inconsistent with basic principles of good government, transparency, and the rule of law.”

“Each year, the federal government spends $80 billion on federal IT systems, yet much of that is wasted on cost overruns, long delays and outdated programs. By giving decision makers the ability to make changes appropriate for their agency, we can ensure that the most knowledgeable will now be able to enact solutions that had otherwise plagued their agencies. As technology changes, Chief Information Officers were previously prevented from adopting new technologies, and often the American ...

Today, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on implementation of The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act), transformative federal spending transparency legislation that was first introduced by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) ...