Meanwhile, back at the White House

The Boston Marathon Bombing is a tragedy, the person(s) responsible for this will undoubtedly be found.

However, there is another news story that broke today that will get zero coverage now. President Obama has just signed a rollback of key transparency provisions of the STOCK Act. Late Thursday night, the Senate gutted the disclosure requirements by approving S.716, an act amending the requirements of the 2011 law. The House followed suit the next day, and the president signed the bill minutes ago. Back in 2011, congress passed this bill into law by a net vote of 513-5.

With no hearings or notice to the public or to most members of the body, the Senate voted by unanimous consent to remove both the online disclosure requirement for staff members on the Hill and in executive branch agencies and the creation of a public database containing the information within the reports.

The bill doesn't just eliminate a controversial requirement that personal financial disclosures of tens of thousands of high level federal employees be made publicly accessible online. It also reverses two critical components of the original STOCK act: mandatory electronic filing of PFDs by the president, his cabinet and members of Congress, and the creation of a publicly accessible database. The signature of the man who said his administration "...is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government." is now on this law.

Required electronic filing for Congress, the president, vice president, the president’s cabinet and congressional candidates, as well as high-level executive and congressional branch employees. Even images of the staffers' filings will not be available for viewing on the web. Paper copies can still be made available to the public, and using information that is not available to the public for personal gain is still banned in the law, but the ability for the general public to act as watchdogs to hold congress honest. 

Find the bastards who think some pipe bombs can make a political point, but don't forget to ask what the heck happened here as well.