Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) have joined forces again to craft legislation that would increase the transparency of how the federal government spends taxpayers' money. The Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act (S. 3077), introduced June 3, is a follow-up to the 2006 Transparency Act, which was also spearheaded by the two senators. Obama and Coburn, along with Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and John McCain (R-AZ), introduced the new legislation with the goals of making important new data easily accessible and enabling citizens to hold our government accountable for the fiscal stewardship of our shared resources.

Access to government data and other information often falls behind expectations due to the government's failure to use advanced technologies to meet the needs of modern day society. In "Hack, Mash, & Peer," Jerry Brito, Senior Research Fellow of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, discusses the shortcomings of government access and technological solutions to create broad access to government records.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing on the proliferation of secret law in the Bush administration. In particular, the subcommittee focused on the role of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in the Justice Department in the development of secret law governing the executive branch.

A recent report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) reviews the classification procedures at eight agencies and finds significant problems, which unnecessarily complicate classification procedures and inhibit the free flow of information.