"Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days. ." — Plan to Change Washington
Increase protections for whistleblowers (Comments)
"Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government." — Obama's "The Change We Need In Washington"
"Barack Obama will issue an executive order banning registered lobbyists or lobbying firms from giving gifts in any amount or any form to executive branch employees." — Obama's "The Change We Need In Washington"
Stop misuse of no-bid contracts (Comments)
"I will end the abuse of no-bid contracts in my administration." — 6/22/07, Manchester, N.H.
Be open with the American people (Comments)
"But I can promise you this: I will always tell you what I think and where I stand." — 9/3/07, Manchester, N.H.
"When you walk into my administration, you will not be able to work on regulations or contracts related to your former employer for two years. When you leave, you will not be able to lobby the administration throughout the remainder of my term in office." — 5/19/08, Billings, Mont.
Put agency meetings with lobbyists online (Comments)
"When there are meetings between lobbyists and a government agency, we won't be going to the Supreme Court to keep it secret like Dick Cheney and his energy task force. We'll be putting them up on the Internet for every American to watch. And instead of allowing lobbyists to slip big corporate tax breaks into bills during the dead of night, we will make sure every single tax break and earmark is available to every American online." — 6/22/07, Manchester, N.H.
Disclose contractor lobbying (Comments)
"Obama will create a 'contracts and influence' database that will disclose how much federal contractors spend on lobbying, and what contracts they are getting and how well they complete them." — Obama's Blueprint for Change
Put federal spending information online (Comments)
"We'll put government data online and use technology to shine a light on spending." — 6/16/08, Flint, Mich.
Post bills online before signing them (Comments)
"When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you will have five days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it." — 6/22/07, Manchester, N.H.
Fight for agency to oversee investigations of congressional ethics (Comments)
"Obama will use the power of the presidency to fight for an independent watchdog agency to oversee the investigation of congressional ethics violations so that the public can be assured that ethics complaints will be investigated." — Obama's Blueprint for Change
Require Cabinet members to hold broadband town hall meetings (Comments)
"Obama will bring democracy and public policy directly to the people by requiring his Cabinet officials to have periodic national broadband town hall meetings to discuss issues before their agencies." — Obama's Blueprint for Change
Disclose regulatory conversations between officials and outsiders (Comments)
"Obama will amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public." — Obama's Blueprint for Change
Require public meetings for department heads and rulemaking agencies (Comments)
"Obama will require his appointees who lead the executive branch departments and rulemaking agencies to conduct the significant business of the agency in public, so that any citizen can watch these debates in person or on the Internet." — Obama's Blueprint for Change
Timely release of presidential records (Comments)
"Obama and Biden will nullify the Bush attempts to make the timely release of presidential records more difficult." — Obama ethics plan
A repeated promise was that the change Obama would bring would be in the way Washington works.
To honor these commitments concerning lobbying and lobbyists it would be smart for the Administration to hire a group of attorneys from varying backgrounds, say a tax law attorney, a tort attorney, and an ip attorney, to look into and report the details of each interaction with lobbyists to the public. This would also help the President to keep his promise of having a more open style of policy making. Having this group of attorneys could also help with disclosing regulatory conversations and the results of meetings with department heads. I feel that having attorneys observe and report these conversations, deals, and meetings would help with removing the "legal barrier" of understanding what is happening so that the public will be able to be as informed as possible without having to have an understanding legal jargon.
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