A number of news outlets, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, are reporting that as early as today, the Obama administration plans to release a new policy on the state secrets privilege.  The new policy is expected to be implemented on Oct. 1.  According to the reports, there are several measures included that will restrict the executive branch’s ability to claim the privilege.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized its mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting rule. This new rule will require thousands of facilities to monitor and report their annual emissions of several major GHG. The registry should provide much of the detailed, facility-level information needed to develop policies to reduce emissions. Several major changes were made to the proposed rule, mostly in favor of industry. The changes appear to have reduced the amount of facilities covered and the amount of greenhouse gases tracked.

Back when the Recovery Board released the Recovery.gov redesign contract, many in the transparency community were upset at the extent to which the General Services Administration redacted the contract. While we certainly expected General Services Administration (GSA) - the agency which conducts most of the federal government's procurement - to redact proprietary information, the document had massive swaths blacked out, including such ridiculous sections as the number of peak users and one part titled "Introduction."

I should mention that the first conference – sponsored by the New America Foundation on Tuesday – discussed the merits of short-term deficit spending in the midst of a recession, while the second academic panel – held yesterday and sponsored by the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform – discussed the mountainous mid- to long-term debt anticipated with the looming entitlement crisis. The distinction is important, yet often lost in discussions of deficits and debt.