President Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 inaugural promise to lead the most transparent administration in history has had a major impact on federal information technology, which has led to new developments in data reporting at the state level. Spurred by federal requirements to report Recovery Act spending, states have created new reporting technologies and new transparency experiments.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a Washington, DC-based watchdog group, recently called upon the Senate Committee on Ethics to investigate the ongoing use of secret holds. The organization contends that senators have failed to abide by Section 512 of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA), which ended the use of secret holds. The group requested the committee discipline senators from both parties who have failed to abide by the procedures, as well as issue guidance to govern future conduct.