Sixteen Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee want Appropriations Defense subcommittee Chairman Bill Young (R-Fla.) to add $250 million to the fiscal year 2014 defense spending bill for a missile site on the East Coast,…

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There is no such thing as a "filibuster-proof majority"

 

In his State of the Union address to Congress last week, President Barack Obama asked the U.S. Senate to amend or abolish its filibuster rules to break the Congressional gridlock. Don’t hold your breath. Neither party wants to change those rules because they always benefit the minority party, and each party will have its turn in that position.

 

You won’t find filibusters in the U.S.…

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MPAA head lobbyist Chris Dodd threatened Congress and the President last week, suggesting that lawmakers should remember that they've been bought, and that if they want to continue to enjoy their piece of the entertainment industry's largesse, they should mind their leash:

"Candidly, those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very…

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These days, it's pretty common to hear that we've lost sight of what the Founding Fathers intended. A frequent criticism is that Congress is guilty of "overreaching" into areas more legitimately the province of states and localities or the federal executive branch. So it's interesting that some lawmakers are willingly relinquishing one of the powers explicitly vested in them by the Constitution.

 

Al Kamen of the Washington Post writes that the Senate yesterday elected to…

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The House and Senate are loggerheads, to say the least, over the 2012 budget. One side wants to cut civilian agency spending and boost Defense. The other wants to do just the opposite. Either way, it will affect IT spending. Read the latest coming from the House Appropriations Committee, and what the likely outcome will be.

 

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With 50 bills in Congress having to do with cybersecurity, and none of them showing any imminent signs of movement, the White House at last weighed in with its own legislative proposal. In an online statement, the president’s staff said it was outlining its cyber legislative goals in response to a request from Senate… Continue

Here's a snippet from my new post at WhoRunsGov at the Washington Post. Click on the link below to read the entire thing.

 

In the not-so-distant past, a big concern for a PR firm or pollster was “is their client’s message getting across?” In the social media world, the new question is “Are they influential?” Social media influence can be a tricky thing to determine. Companies (and politicians) want you to become a fan of their Facebook page, or follow them on Twitter. But…

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By Steve O'Keeffe http://bit.ly/e21yZ5

 

I'm a simple fellow. I'm easily confused. I'm easily distracted. When I read OMB's 25-Point Plan to fix Fed IT my head hurt. 25 points. All with associated deadlines. The Almighty himself only had 10 - and no deadlines. Honor Thy Father and Mother - in six months. You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor - in 18 months. Is OMB really committing to all these…

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This article was originally published in the Huffington Post. Continue

Here's the article from Politico which crowns the 73 year old senator:

John McCain, Twitter genius

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First off, I believe in the potential of the open government initiative, government 2.0, whatever you wish to call it. My goal is simple, to baseline where we are in terms of basic social engagement at one of the highest levels of our government… The Senate. Here is my approach, for better or for worse:



* This test will be run once while out of session (the January cycle) and once when back in session (the February cycle).

* Using lists I found on Tweepml.org I have pulled… Continue

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8:30 am



In my efforts to live tweet this event, I had to resort to updating this blog. Government isn't quite sold on the live tweet/updates argument, but I'll do my best to keep you updated via blogs over the next few hours. I just got the call to come set up our table. We've got great lanyards, collateral, give-a-ways, and a cool poster to display the work of our i… Continue