Wyandotte County Democrats

The 24th Annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day was celebrated on February 3rd.  Ensuring that women and girls have equal opportunities to be strong and healthy is a priority for the Obama Administration.  National Girls and Women in Sports Day reminds us of the hard work that has and must continue to go into providing women equal opportunities to participate and excel in sports.  We also take this day to celebrate the accomplishments of all female athletes, from girls running their first races to the athletes participating in this year’s XXI Olympic Winter Games. 

President Obama and Secretary Sebelius have stated their support for National Girls and Women in Sports Day. You can read the President's statement here and  the Secretary’s statement here.

Maude Baggetto is Staff Assistant in the Office of Public Engagement and the Council on Women and Girls

Today, the President addressed by video the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar.  He outlined the actions the United States has taken since his speech in Cairo, Egypt last June, in which he called for a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.  The President emphasized that the U.S is ending in the war in Iraq, creating partnerships to isolate violent extremists in Afghanistan, and pursuing a two-state solution that recognizes the rights and security of Palestinians and Israelis.

Click here to see the video.

He  also described the government-wide approach the Administration is taking to create immediate and long-term programs and partnerships that seek to improve the daily lives of people in Muslim communities around the world.  All agencies and departments – from NASA and the Small Busines Administration to the Department of State and USAID – have worked together to implement a number of programs in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, health,  and science and technology.  For example, after holding thousands of listening sessions around the world, the U.S. has expanded exchange programs and online opportunities, forged a global recovery effort to create jobs in all regions of the world, launched a Global Technology and Innovation Fund to invest in technological development in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, worked with Saudi officials to address H1N1 to prepare for Hajj, and partnered with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to eradicate polio.    

At home, senior officials across the Administration – including Attorney General Holder, Secretary Napolitano, and Secretary Locke – have engaged Muslim communities around the country, and today, John Brennan, the President’s top counter-terrorism advisor, will hold a town hall dialogue at the Islamic Center of New York University with students and community leaders from around the country.

As part of his commitment to continue to seek a new beginning with Muslim communities around the world, and to expand upon the partnerships he outlined in Cairo, I am honored and humbled that the President has asked me to serve as his Special Envoy to the OIC.  President Obama has emphasized that progress will be judged not by our words, but our actions, and I am committed to deepening the partnerships that he outlined in his visionary address last summer.   I look forward to updating you on the Administration's efforts in these areas over the coming months.

Today's remarks by President Obama in Doha are below:

Hello Saturday.

The President, having just signed the "Pay As You Go" law, discusses the importance of this fundamental rule to getting budget deficits in check.  Ensuring that new spending and tax cuts are offset was a important factor in creating the budget surplus of the late 1990’s.

Click here to see the video.

Today marks the beginning of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. President Obama taped a special video message to welcome and encourage the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams upon their arrival in Vancouver.

Watch the video and visit the Vancouver 2010 website for more information the Olympics. 

Click here to see the video.

Here is the transcript:

I want to congratulate all the athletes here today for making the 2010 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams – you are truly the best of the best. All of us are incredibly proud of everything you’ve accomplished to get here, and we can’t wait to see what you’ll accomplish in Vancouver.

The Olympics represent one of the greatest traditions in sports – a place where legends are born and history is made. And over the next two and a half weeks, each of you will have the experience of a lifetime – the culmination of years of hard work and endless sacrifice; dogged perseverance and unyielding determination.

As Olympic and Paralympic athletes, you’ll be representing your coaches, family and friends who gave so much to help you get to where you are. You’ll be representing the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans watching at home and around the globe. And you’ll be serving as ambassadors for your country, both on and off the playing field – presenting the very best of America to the world.

So congratulations again on making the team, and best of luck in Vancouver. Michelle, Malia, Sasha, Bo and I can’t wait to follow your journeys from here in Washington. I know you’ll all make America enormously proud. Thank you.

One month since the earthquake, the relief efforts in Haiti are still a national priority and we will continue to support our neighbors through the difficult rebuilding period ahead. American contributions to these efforts were part of a statement released by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs earlier today:

As part of the civilian-led American response, search and rescue teams pulled survivors from the rubble.  Volunteer physicians, nurses and paramedics continue to deliver life-saving medical treatment.  Having reopened the main airport and port to enable a massive international humanitarian effort, our servicemen and women are supporting the distribution of urgently needed food, water, medicine and shelter until these functions can be fulfilled by the rapidly-expanding civilian operation and the United Nations in Haiti.

His statement also highlighted the resilience of the people of Haiti and reiterated our commitment for future assistance:

Amidst unimaginable suffering, the people of Haiti have inspired the world with their faith, strength of spirit and determination to rebuild.  In the difficult months and years to come, they will continue to have a friend and partner in the United States of America.

Read the full press release and visit the Haiti Earthquake page to learn more about how you can get involved.
 

President Obama, in taped remarks, sends his warmest wishes to those celebrating the Lunar New Year, here in America and around the world:

Click here to see the video.

Here's the transcript:

Michelle and I send our warmest wishes to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the people of Asia, and all those around the world who are celebrating the Lunar New Year. 

As people of all cultures and faiths welcome the Year of the Tiger, let us all give thanks for family, the wisdom of our ancestors, and the company of our friends and neighbors.

Here in the United States, the Lunar New Year will be marked by festivals in Houston and lion dances in Los Angeles; parades in Chicago and celebrations large and small in communities across our nation. Americans of Asian descent will continue the rich traditions of the past and begin new ones with their own families. Together, they serve as a reminder of the richness and diversity that make our country great.

So to all those celebrating the Lunar New Year, may you be blessed with peace, prosperity and good health – now and in the year ahead.

Kalpen Modi is an Associate Director for the Office of Public Engagement

Keeping track of huge piles of paperwork is not an easy task for anyone. Imagine doing that for our entire health care system. In effect, that is what is going on with our current paper and pencil system of medical record keeping -- until now.
 
At the Department of Health and Human Services, part of our mission is to ensure quality health care for all Americans. And today I am excited to announce that we are delivering on this in the form of over $750 million in new grants that are part of a federal initiative to build capacity to enable widespread meaningful use of health IT, helping doctors adopt electronic medical records.
 
As part of the Recovery Act, the legislation President Obama signed into law last year to help strengthen the economy, these grants benefit both patients and doctors by cutting costs, eliminating paperwork, and helping doctors deliver high-quality, coordinated care. They also help eliminate errors that come with having a paper and pencil system and save patients from having to fill out the same form dozens of times.
 
You can find examples of this from across the country.  At one health system, they used electronic health records to identify older women who hadn’t received an osteoporosis screening and mail them personal letters encouraging them to get screened.  Screenings went up 300%. 
 
At another health system, only a third of their diabetes patients were receiving the recommended foot and eye exams.  They started tracking these patients using electronic health records, and within five months, the share of patients getting the recommended exams doubled to around two out of three.
 
Yet despite all these benefits, only 20 percent of doctors and 10 percent of hospitals have even basic electronic health records today.  That’s because even though many doctors around the country can see the potential benefits, there are also obstacles.
 
That’s where these grants come in. We want to spread the benefits of health information technology to our entire health care system. Led by our National Coordinator for Health IT, Dr. David Blumenthal, our grants team has identified major areas where we can begin to implement new technology to make delivering health care more efficient and more effective. Read Dr. Blumenthal’s blog about it here.
 
Electronic health records will provide major technological innovation to our current health care system by allowing doctors to work together to make sure patients get the right care at the right time and want to be clear that in all our Health IT investments, patient privacy is our top priority.

Kathleen Sebelius is Secretary of Health and Human Services 

On Tuesday the President discussed the upcoming bipartisan meeting on health reform, saying "Let's get the relevant parties together; let's put the best ideas on the table.  My hope is that we can find enough overlap that we can say this is the right way to move forward, even if I don't get every single thing that I want."

Moments ago the invite (pdf) was sent out from Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius – here is the full text:

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, and Representative Boehner:

We are writing to ask that you join President Obama for a bipartisan meeting at the Blair House on February 25 to discuss health reform legislation.

We have seen again in recent days that when it comes to health care, the status quo is unsustainable and unacceptable. The proof is right in front of us: just last week, a major insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, announced plans to increase premiums for many of its policyholders in California by as much as 39 percent on March 1.

As the President noted this week, if we don’t act on comprehensive health insurance reform, this enormous rate hike will be "just a preview of coming attractions. Premiums will continue to rise for folks with insurance; millions more will lose their coverage altogether; our deficits will continue to grow larger."

Now is the time to act on behalf of the millions of Americans and small businesses who are counting on meaningful health insurance reform. In the last year, there has been an extraordinary effort to craft effective legislation. There have been hundreds of hours of committee hearings and mark-ups in both the House of Representatives and Senate, with nearly all of those sessions televised on C-SPAN. The Senate spent over 160 hours on the Senate floor considering health insurance reform legislation and, for the first time in history, both the House of Representatives and Senate have approved comprehensive health reform legislation. This is the closest our Nation has been to resolving this issue in the nearly 100 years that it has been debated.

The Blair House meeting is the next step in this process. The session will begin at 10:00 a.m. and be broadcast live in its entirety. Although it is impossible to include every House Member or Senator who has played a pivotal role in the health care debate, the President is inviting the most senior House/Senate bipartisan leadership, as well as the chairmen and ranking members of the committees that oversee health insurance reform legislation in both chambers. A complete list of this group is attached. The President would like each of you to designate an additional four Members to attend the meeting and be available to participate. It is also important that each of you have one staff member specializing in health care policy in the meeting.

We will have a representative from the Office of Management and Budget to provide technical assistance, and hope that representatives from the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation will also be able to attend.

In addition to the President, attending and participating on behalf of the Administration will be the Vice President, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the Office of Health Reform.

The President will offer opening remarks at the beginning of the meeting, followed by remarks from a Republican leader chosen by the Republican leadership and a Democratic leader chosen by the Democratic leadership. The President will then open and moderate discussion on four critical topics: insurance reforms, cost containment, expanding coverage, and the impact health reform legislation will have on deficit reduction.
Since this meeting will be most productive if information is widely available before the meeting, we will post online the text of a proposed health insurance reform package. This legislation would put a stop to insurance company abuses, extend coverage to millions of Americans, get control of skyrocketing premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and reduce the deficit.
It is the President’s hope that the Republican congressional leadership will also put forward their own comprehensive bill to achieve those goals and make it available online as well. As the President said earlier this week:
I’m looking forward to a constructive debate with plans that need to be measured against this test: Does it bring down costs for all Americans as well as for the Federal Government, which spends a huge amount on health care? Does it provide adequate protection against abuses by the insurance industry? Does it make coverage affordable and available to the tens of millions of working Americans who don't have it right now? And does it help us get on a path of fiscal sustainability?
These are priorities that we all share, and the President is looking forward to examining with you and your colleagues how we can best achieve the most effective reform possible.
Sincerely,

Rahm Emanuel

Assistant to the President

Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary of Health and Human Services

Click here to read the full list of invitees (pdf).

Today’s Washington Post has an interesting article on moms entering the workforce – or staying in the workforce – during the last two years. It notes the trends during the recent recession that many experts have been writing about:  women are either re-entering the workforce, moving from part to full time jobs or becoming their family’s breadwinner.  There are two things that are noteworthy about this: (1) the recession may have sped up changes in family structure that had been gradually happening over the last two decades; and (2) balancing work and caregiving are increasingly important to the economic well-being of middle class families, as more families become reliant on two incomes to get ahead.  Predictably, parents in the Post article had different reactions to returning to or staying at work – but all acknowledged they would continue the juggling act while it made financial sense for their families.  There is little evidence the trends exacerbated by the recession will significantly change as the economy continues its recovery.

On this blog we’ve been writing a lot about the proposals the Middle Class Task Force has already put forward to help families pay for child care and to expand help for families caring for elders or a person with a disability.  These proposals are a step in the right direction for working parents, but more – such as more and better child care options, paid leave and greater flexibility – can be done to adapt our workplaces to the transformation that is occurring for families.  These policies are often lumped together under the misnomer "work family balance." As most parents (working or not) in our 24/7 economy will tell you, true balance is illusory amidst all the teetering and juggling that gets you through the day.  We can’t create more hours in the day, but we can create more options for parents.  And while that may not bring balance – it can help mitigate stress, uncertainty, and unpredictability.  As a first step we can learn strategies and practices from corporations that have already taken innovative steps and reaped rewards in efficiency and retention for doing so. The Task Force plans to continue to work on these issues in the coming months. 

Terrell McSweeny is Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President

Yesterday the White House released the annual Economic Report of the President – a detailed analysis of actions taken by the Administration to address our Nation’s economic challenges over the past year and the President’s plans to rebuild and rebalance our economy for the future. As part of White House’s commitment to make government more accessible, the Economic Report of the President is now available as an eBook for your Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble nook, Sony Reader and a number of other devices. We are always looking for ways to bring people closer to their government through new technology.

The 2010 Report includes an overview by the President of the Administration’s economic policies and goals, a 300-page analysis of the Administration’s first year and over 100 pages of key economic statistics. Now the 2010 Report isn’t just more convenient, it’s also more environmentally friendly.

The full report is available for download as a free eBook through WhiteHouse.gov or through Amazon, Barnes & Noble or the Sony Reader store.

Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director

As we approach Valentine’s day, we thought it was interesting to see that there’s a terribly compelling story of unrequited love playing out right in front of us.

This morning Politico posted a story emphatically declaring the media’s adoration of Sarah Palin. “We love Palin,” they gushed. And indeed they do. As Politico reported every major news outlet had reporters covering her speech last week, with CNN devoting a crew of 11 and cable news outlets carrying it live. All of this despite the fact, the speech was admittedly “unremarkable [and] largely a red-meat regurgitation of the sort of sound-byte-friendly attacks and folksy witticisms she has offered many times before.”

But while the media was sending Palin a valentine declaring their “love” for her, The Orlando Sentinel reported this morning that Sarah Palin has barred media from her big-ticket events in Florida next month. And denying the press access isn’t the only thing Palin does to tell the media to talk to the hand. Indeed - she regularly derides the media elite and declares the existence of media bias. But her rejections won’t stop the media from showering her with love. For example, the objects of her rejections and much of her ridicule, The New York Times and The Washington Post devoted A1 coverage to her “unremarkable” speech.

It might be compelling, but seeing how Palin continues to reject the media as they do their best John Cusack holding a boom-box over their head outside her house, it is a little pathetic to watch.

Happy Friday.

President Obama's statement following action by the Senate to confirm twenty-seven nominees:

Today, the United States Senate confirmed 27 of my high-level nominees, many of whom had been awaiting a vote for months. 

At the beginning of the week, a staggering 63 nominees had been stalled in the Senate because one or more senators placed a hold on their nomination.  In most cases, these holds have had nothing to do with the nominee’s qualifications or even political views, and these nominees have already received broad, bipartisan support in the committee process. 

Instead, many holds were motivated by a desire to leverage projects for a Senator’s state or simply to frustrate progress.  It is precisely these kinds of tactics that enrage the American people. 

And so on Tuesday, I told Senator McConnell that if Republican senators did not release these holds, I would exercise my authority to fill critically-needed positions in the federal government temporarily through the use of recess appointments.  This is a rare but not unprecedented step that many other presidents have taken.  Since that meeting, I am gratified that Republican senators have responded by releasing many of these holds and allowing 29 nominees to receive a vote in the Senate. 

While this is a good first step, there are still dozens of nominees on hold who deserve a similar vote, and I will be looking for action from the Senate when it returns from recess.  If they do not act, I reserve the right to use my recess appointment authority in the future.

From DNC Chairman Tim Kaine:

"A million dollars is not a lot of money." That's what RNC Chairman Michael Steele thinks, anyway.

To most Americans, that's crazy talk. But it's no surprise coming from the head of a party that prefers favors for Wall Street to jobs on Main Street.

How long would it take you to earn $1 million? Click here to find out -- then write a letter to the editor exposing the GOP's agenda.

How long would it take you to earn a million bucks? Find out today.

The average American household makes $52,000 per year. Only 2% make more than $250,000 -- and millions are out of work in a recovering economy.

But while arguing to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy last Thursday at the University of Arkansas, Steele let slip that he thinks a million is "not a lot." It's outrageous -- but sadly, not surprising.

Greed and excess on Wall Street nearly brought down our economy, health care costs are drowning families, but the GOP is fighting to protect big banks and block health reform while proposing more and more tax cuts for the rich.

What's worse, the leading Republican on the House Budget Committee just proposed a budget that privatizes Social Security and shreds Medicare -- two programs that millions of middle-class Americans rely upon.

Republicans are going all out to be seen as defenders of the "little guy" this election season. But Chairman Steele's comment last week made it clear they're not. We need to make sure every American hears about it.

Use our calculator to figure out how long it would take you to earn "not a lot of money" -- then use our easy letter-to-the-editor tool, your own story, and our helpful tips to expose the GOP on the widely-read letters page of your local paper.

Thanks,

Governor Tim Kaine

The President meets with the 2009 and 2010 March of Dimes Ambassadors in the Oval Office:

President Barack Obama greets March Of Dimes ambassador families in the Oval Office

The Middle Class Task Force recently announced a number of initiatives that are designed to strengthen the retirement system and help provide a more secure retirement to millions of American workers.  These initiatives are part of President Obama’s FY 2011 budget, and this Administration will be working hard with Congress to get these proposals passed into law this year.

You don’t need us to tell you how important it is to strengthen the retirement system, but in the wake of the financial crisis and the market collapse, it’s become clearer than ever that we need to do more to help  American workers save for a secure retirement.  Many workers have seen their 401(k)s and IRAs decline by thirty or forty percent, and many more have seen the value of their home - the single most important asset for many middle-class families - fall just as far.  So families across the country are acutely feeling the need for us to do more to help provide a secure retirement for hardworking Americans.

But there are also some longer-term problems with the retirement system, and we think it’s important to address those as well.  Far too many workers don’t have access to a retirement plan through their employer, and even among Americans who have been saving since they got their first job, too many are seeing the returns on their savings eaten away by high fees, leaving them with less than they’d hoped for when they retire.

That’s why we’ve proposed this package of retirement initiatives – we want to make sure that Americans have access to good options to save for retirement.

That means making sure more workers have workplace retirement plans by requiring employers who don’t offer a retirement plan at the workplace to automatically enroll their workers in a direct-deposit IRA, to give workers an easy and effective way to save.  Workers will be able to opt out if they choose, and the smallest employers will be exempt, but this proposal will provide an important new way to save for many of the seventy eight million Americans – about half the workforce – who currently do not have a retirement plan at work.

It also means matching the savings of many families to help them save more.  We’re proposing to simplify and expand the Saver’s Credit to provide a fifty percent match on the first $1,000 of retirement savings for families making up to $65,000, and to provide a partial credit for families making up to $85,000.  So if you save $1,000, you get a tax credit for an additional $500 to help you build up your retirement savings.  And we’re proposing to make the credit fully refundable, helping families who are just starting to save a nest egg and helping lower-income families to rise into the middle class.

Finally, it means updating and strengthening regulations to make sure there are good savings options available to American workers.  Too many workers are seeing high fees erode the returns on their retirement savings year after year, so we’re proposing new regulations that would make sure American workers have all the information they need to make the best choices with their retirement savings.

We’re already getting good reactions on these proposals from retirement experts across the ideological spectrum.  For example, Nancy LeaMond, Executive Vice President of AARP, said in a statement,

“Millions of hard-working Americans don’t have access to a traditional pension or a 401(k), making it difficult for them to save for retirement. Studies have shown that when workers have the ability to enroll in an automatic workplace retirement savings plan, they are more likely to save.  AARP firmly believes that the an automatic workplace savings account or “Auto IRA” is a low-cost, high-impact way to help millions of Americans save for their retirement – experts estimate such a proposal could help 50 million Americans. The Auto IRA proposal has earned bipartisan support among leaders in Congress as well as among employers. More importantly, according to a recent AARP survey, eighty percent of Americans support for the proposal as a way to improve individuals’ retirement security.”

Robert Greenstein, Executive Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said of our package of retirement initiatives,

“Taken together, these proposals should induce significant increases in retirement saving.  Such an increase in saving would both help families in old age and strengthen U.S. long-term economic growth by increasing the pool of national savings that can be tapped for private investment in new plant and equipment.”

The Corporation for Enterprise Development also praised our efforts to help American workers save more, writing in a statement,

“We commend the Obama Administration for prioritizing asset building as part of their solution to financial distress for America’s middle class families.  The President and his team are right to seek solutions to rising levels of asset poverty.”

Meanwhile, David John at the Heritage Foundation describes our Automatic IRA proposal as a “common-sense idea that could help to increase Americans’ retirement security.”  He writes:

“This simple, easy-to-understand way for workers to save some of their own money each payday is important, because almost 78 million American workers--about half of all workers--are employed by companies that do not offer any sort of pension plan or 401(k)-type retirement saving plan. … The Automatic IRA has wide bipartisan support from the left and right and was endorsed in 2008 by both the McCain and Obama campaigns. It is a simple, cross-ideological, and practical solution to a serious problem.”

Of course, we don’t think these proposals will solve the problem of retirement insecurity overnight; especially in the aftermath of the market crash, it will take time and hard work for Americans to build up their retirement savings.  But we believe these initiatives are an important step toward making sure that American workers have good choices to save for the secure retirement they deserve.

Tobin Marcus is the Assistant to the Chief Economist for the Vice President

Join Kansas Democrats at the Downtown Topeka Ramada February 26th-27th for the 2010 Washington Days celebration.

Washington Days tickets are on Early Bird Special until Sunday, February 14th. Reserve them online now!
 
This year, Kansas Democrats will be joined by special guest Senior Majority Whip and DNC Vice-Chairman, Congressman Mike Honda.

Washington Days is the largest annual gathering of Democrats in the state of Kansas. Join the celebration and meet fellow Democrats, get involved, and help prepare for continued success in 2010.

Early bird ticket pricing ends Sunday, so get your tickets fast!

Click here to purchase tickets now!

To reserve a room at our special rate of $85 plus tax, call the Topeka Ramada at (785) 234-5400.

From the Offices of House Democratic Legislative Leaders
Sen. Anthony Hensley and Rep. Paul Davis:
 
O’Neal votes for fee sweeps, contradicts himself

Republican House Speaker voted for nearly 40 fee fund sweeps from 2002-2010
TOPEKA – Today, Kansas Speaker of the House Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, voted in favor of a $5 million fee fund sweep from the Investor Education Fund of the Securities Commissioner, which was included in the FY 2010 rescission bill.
 
O’Neal’s legislative voting record indicates that he supported nearly 40 fee fund sweeps between 2002 and 2010.
 

In 2002, O’Neal voted for a total of 24 fee sweeps, including $1.7 million from the State Fire Marshal Fee Fund and more than $1 million from the Kansas Highway Patrol Motor Vehicle Fund.  In 2004, he voted in favor of a $150,000 Service Regulation Fund.  He again voted in favor of eight fee sweep measures in 2005, including $1 million each from the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Emergency Medical Services Board.  In 2006, O’Neal voted to sweep $2 million from the Department of Education and in 2007 he voted for three fee sweep measures, including $1.25 million from the Investor Education Fund in the Securities Commissioner’s Office.
 
“Mike O’Neal’s special interest lawsuit hinges on his dissenting vote of a $2 million fee sweep from the Workers Compensation Fund in 2009.  Yet in 2002, he voted to sweep three times that much –$7 million – from the exact same fund,” said House Democratic Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence.  “If the Speaker’s involvement in the case is based purely on what he feels to be an unconstitutional appropriation, why hasn’t he always voted in accordance with this belief?  It only raises more questions about the extent to which Rep. O’Neal intertwines his power as Speaker with his private law practice.”
 
In an e-mail to members of the House Republican Caucus this week, O’Neal attempted to justify his decision to be the attorney for a group of special interests suing the State of Kansas.  In the e-mail, O’Neal said “prior case law considers this practice of sweeping funds to be an unconstitutional tax, a practice I have been criticizing since back in 2001-2002…” 
 
“Mike O’Neal is deceiving his clients and his constituents by claiming to oppose fee sweeps which he has clearly supported in the past,” said Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka.  “I have no doubt that Mike is using his position as Speaker of the House to personally profit from this lawsuit, even if it means misrepresenting his voting record.  Clearly, Mike O’Neal’s loyalties lie with his special interest clients, not the people of Kansas.”

As part of the Open Government Directive, 25 different agencies have launched open government webpages and are using those sites to take your ideas for how they can be more open and transparent. 

Launched on Feb 6th, these webpages are only one of the important milestones laid out in the Directive and the next deliverable, an open government plan for each agency, is being developed based on your input.  Each agency’s plan will serve as a two-year roadmap for how the principles of transparency, collaboration, and participation will be incorporated in both the agency’s overarching mission and day-to-day activities. 

Your feedback can help influence the development of agency plans, transparency policies, and publically disclosed data.  Here are some examples from ongoing discussions:

Department of Homeland Security Dialogue:

Information from the phone contact system is not always up-to-date about cases. Need to improve it to provide the actual/current status of cases. Applications take a long time at the USCIS Office, but there is a tool where one can check the status of a case online. We need to have a similar online tool to check status of cases that are at the NVC. It should give a general ideas on where in the process a case is.

Department of Education Dialogue:

Current textbooks are expensive, and not really great. Creating free textbooks that schools could modify for their own purposes would raise the bar.

General Services Administration Dialogue:

Provide location-based data for recent years with geo-mapping on each Federal building performance measures, such as: Utilization (i.e., occupancy rate), Condition Index, Mission Dependency, and Annual Operating Costs and other like measures from the Federal Real Property Council.

Through many of these agency discussions, you can suggest a new idea or vote on others’ comments.  Visit the GSA list of participating agencies to find ongoing conversations and join the discussion today.