The White House has announced that federally registered lobbyists can not be appointed to agency advisory boards and commissions. These boards and commissions advise the federal government on policy. The White House blog post states; "Keeping these advisory boards free of individuals who currently are registered federal lobbyists represents a dramatic change in the way business is done in Washington.

Today, the Obama administration made an important advance in executive branch transparency by agreeing to publish the White House visitor logs.  Norm Eisen wrote on the White House blog that, “Each month, records of visitors from the previous 90-120 days will be made available online.”  The White House agreed to this measure as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).  As part of this settlement, the Obama administration will also turn over some visitor logs belonging to the Bush administration.

A new report by Public Citizen says that representatives of the banks that received the most money from the federal bailout have spent millions of dollars in campaign donations to Members of Congress. The study was based on the 10 banks that received the most funds under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) and of five trade associations. Public Citizen analyzed fundraiser invitations collected by the Sunlight Foundation and campaign contribution disclosures.

In 2008, K Street received $86 million from foreign sources to pursue their interests with representatives of the American people.  While states and populations abroad certainly have legitimate interests in U.S. domestic and foreign policy, the origins of much of that money are still largely shrouded in secrecy.  The data, until now, has been difficult for most Americans to access.  As a result, the Sunlight Foundation and ProPublica joined together to track which foreign governments and corporations are lobbying for representation in the U.S. Congress.