On Mar. 2, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the Collins/Lieberman substitute to S. 2128, the Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act, legislation aimed at tightening ethics and lobbying rules for both lobbyists and members of Congress and their staffs. The committee approved a substitute authored by Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ranking Member Joe Lieberman (D-CT) to a bill introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). The final vote was 12-1, with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) the lone dissenting voice. As introduced in committee, the legislation would:

On Feb. 16, OMB Watch joined numerous other groups, including the AFL-CIO, Alliance for Justice, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in filing a Petition for Rulemaking with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), asking the FEC to exempt legitimate grassroots communications from "electioneering communication" prohibitions.

On Feb. 1, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) expanded its inquiry into government spying on U.S. nonprofit groups by filing multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Department of Defense (DOD), in order to determine the full extent of monitoring by the Pentagon. The new ACLU information requests seek information on four national groups and several local groups in six states. Further review of documents already released to the ACLU reveals that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has used reports by right-wing groups in its investigations.

Nonprofit leaders recently called on the Treasury Department to withdraw its anti-terrorism financing guidelines for charities and to replace them with principles developed by the charitable community. Treasury's Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines: Voluntary Best Practices for U.S.-Based Charities, were initially issued in 2002 and revised on Dec. 5, 2005. Treasury sought comments on its revision, despite their having been operational since Dec. 5; it is unclear how the department will use the comments submitted by the nonprofits.