on my right is hugh halpern, staff director for the u.s.ouse of representatives committee on rules. on the committee serves as chairman david tries chief adviser on committee and leadership that is the to my leftist jim harper, director of information policy studies at the cato institute and is also the founder of washington watchdog, which keeps a very close eye on legislation and federal spending. chimp has asked me to mention washington watch.com several times during the course of the presentation. and last but not least john who is the policy director at the sunlight foundation and all around transparency gaslight. that is part of his official title. there's more information on your chairs. i'd like to thank representatives who are the co-chairs of the congressional transparency caucus. for giving us the space and aberdeen to have a conversation with you here today. like is that i promise i'll be brief and i'm going to turn to our first panelist. >> thanks. thanks, daniel. thanks to you and the advisory committee and the sunlight founda

hugh halpern. >> thanks, daniel. thanks to you and the advisory committee and the sunlight foundation for having me this afternoon. i would like to talk about where we have been over the last two years and maybe a little about where we are headed in the relatively near future. about this time two years ago, our political folks were starting to make a noise that it was -- that it was certainly possible if not likely that republicans were going to obtain the majority in the house again. we were quietly trying to identify issues that would come up during the transition. as many of you know, among republicans one of the big issues was this read the bill issue. having tax available and making sure members had the opportunity to see what they were voting on. in large part because of the issues surrounding that, and the drive to make that material available, the 112th congress really marked the biggest >> in terms of transparency since the mid 90s when newt gingrich really pushed the library to make all of that information

this next statement is pure hugh halpern. you have a whole class of individuals in the executive branch. who does not think there information should be out there. the other members of the panel, the same information about yours truly has been available online whether i like it or not for the past several years. you can go on line and see exactly how lousy my investment strategy is. a number of people may have a legitimate reason for not disclosing this but my personal opinion is that there are those who are probably casting a wider net to catch people to try and keep more of that information offline and probably should be. i think we will always be willing to take a look at other items. we've got a small group of people who do this work of the house. it has taken about 12% cut in budget the last several years. with what -- with the dwindling resources and need to leverage those were get the biggest bang with a buck. >> gude will describe the implementations and characterized that the concerns are fit to resolve on the ballot

on my right is hugh halpern, staff director for the u.s.house of representatives committee and rules. on the committee is served us chief advisor. immediately to my left is jim harper, director of policy studies at the cato institute and also the founder of washington watch.com, which keeps a close eye on legislation and federal funding. jenna sasser to mention washington watch.com at least several times during the course of this presentation. last but not least is john wonderlich, policy director at all about transparency guide. that is his official title. more information about today's panel under chairs and also at transparency cockiest.org. i would like to thank representative issa andrew gray, cochairs of the congressional congress for giving us the space to have >> thanks, daniel. thanks to you and the advisory committee and the sunlight foundation for having me this afternoon. i would like to talk with you about where we've been over the last two years and maybe a little bit about where we are headed in the relatively near future. yo

immediately to my right to hugh halpern staff director for the u.s. house of representatives committee on rules. on the committee serves as chairman david dreier's chief adviser on immunity matters. immediately to my left is jim helprin the director of information policy studies at the cato institute and the founder of washington watch.com which keeps a close eye on legislation and federal spending. jim is also -- washington watch.com and we several times during the course of this presentation. and last but not least is john wonderlich the policy director of the sunlight foundation and all around -- that is actually the official title. there is more information about today's panelists and our transparency caucus.org. is like to thank represented eyes and quickly who are the co-chairs of the congressional transparency caucus for giving us the space in the opportunity to have a conversation with you here today. like is i is that i promised i would be brief and i'm going to turn to our first panelist, hugh please. >> thanks daniel. thanks to you in the a