In Custodia Legis: The following is a guest post by Leah K. Ibraheem, the web metrics analyst in the Office of the Chief Information Officer of the Library of Congress. “Natalie shared the news when we hit a big metrics milestone last year of more than a million page views and visits in a single day. I track metrics… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Congress
New bill would require paper ballots to secure election results
CNET – The bill, submitted by nine senators on Tuesday, would also mandate election audits. “The Russians can’t hack paper. On Tuesday, twelve Senators introduced a bill [ [The Protecting American Votes and Elections Act] that would require state and local governments to use paper ballots in an effort to secure elections from hackers. The… Continue Reading
Science Under Trump: Voices of Scientists across 16 Federal Agencies (2018)
Union of Concerned Scientists – Center for Science and Democracy – Promoting Scientific Integrity: “A year and a half into the Trump administration, its record on science policy is abysmal: undermining the role of science in decision-making, expanding the influence of regulated industries, excluding public voices, censoring scientists, overriding and dismissing science advice, and hindering… Continue Reading
Greater Commitment Needed by Fintech Firms to Ensure Automated Algorithms Protect Against Discrimination in Loan Applications
“Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II announced today the findings of his investigation into the small business lending practices of Financial Technology (FinTech) companies. Last year, Congressman Cleaver launched an investigation to study the methods that FinTech companies use to protect consumers against discriminatory practices. One of the primary focuses of the survey was the use of… Continue Reading
Facebook opens up to researchers – but not about 2016 election
NBC News – Facebook’s decision is a roadblock for experts who want to examine possible factors behind President Donald Trump’s victory: “Last month, academic researchers got word of a tantalizing offer. Facebook said it would give them a way to study how web addresses are shared on its social network, for the first time opening… Continue Reading
How the Holocaust-Swiss banks deal was brokered
Swissinfo: “It has been 20 years since Swiss banks agreed to compensate Holocaust victims for assets lost during the Second World War. A documentary takes a look at the dormant Swiss bank account scandal. The conflict over Jewish assets in Swiss bank accounts culminated in the 1990s in what would become Switzerland’s largest foreign policy… Continue Reading
Report shines light on political ads that appear on Google and affiliates
Google Transparency Report – “This searchable database features political ads that have appeared on Google and partner properties. It is updated once a week. Find ads about federal candidates or current elected federal officeholders, and see who paid for them… Introducing a new transparency report for political ads. We first launched our Transparency Report in… Continue Reading
So you want to comment on a regulation? Here’s how
How to effectively comment on regulations. August 2018. Adam Looney, Director, Center on Regulation and Markets, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution. “The Trump administration has made its deregulatory agenda clear since inauguration day. The administration’s actions have ranged from sweeping rollbacks of major rules that have garnered media attention, to smaller orders and guidance withdrawals… Continue Reading
Researcher study – U.S. House candidates vulnerable to hacks
Reuters: “Three of every 10 candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives have significant security problems with their websites, according to a new study by independent researchers that underscores the threat hackers pose to the November elections…A team of four independent researchers led by former National Institutes for Standards and Technology security expert Joshua… Continue Reading
Agencies Could Better Leverage Review Processes and Public Outreach to Improve Burden Estimates
Paperwork Reduction Act: Agencies Could Better Leverage Review Processes and Public Outreach to Improve Burden Estimates, GAO-18-381: Published: Jul 11, 2018. Publicly Released: Aug 10, 2018. Each year, nearly every adult and business provides some form of information to a federal agency, whether via tax forms or benefits applications. Agencies estimate the time and resources… Continue Reading
Senate Judiciary Cmte releases first round of Kavanaugh’s White House documents
The Hill: “The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday publicly released its first tranche of documents from Brett Kavanaugh’s work in the George W. Bush White House. The batch being released, totaling more than 5,700 pages, is part of more than 125,000 pages given to the committee last week by the George W. Bush Presidential Library.… Continue Reading
United States Legislative Markup XML
“The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) is collaborating with the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, and the Office of the Federal Register on parallel projects to convert a subset of enrolled bills, public laws, the Statutes at Large, the Federal Register, and the… Continue Reading
