Lobbyists hoping to work for President-elect Donald J. Trump will have to terminate their lobbyist registrations to be vetted for high-level positions, according to CNN.

Additionally, as an agreement to work with the next administration, officials leaving their future positions will be banned from lobbying for five years. Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer says the goal of the ban is to make sure “people aren’t using the government to enrich themselves and using their service in government to do that.”

Trump’s transition team told CNN this will help fulfill Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp” in Washington.

On May 19, Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie M. Gorbea unveiled the launch of Open Government Interactive, an online tool to better understand and interact with the state’s public data, which includes lobbying information. Data visualization is provided through interactive graphs displaying the number and types of lobbyists registered, of organizations hiring lobbyists, and of lobbying relationships relative to legislative topics.

The state also includes other material with this interactive online tool, including public meeting information. “It is my belief that government must be effective, transparent, and accountable to the people it serves in order to succeed. Part of this transparency comes with the general public having access to information about meetings happening among our government bodies and knowledge of who is lobbying their elected officials,” Gorbea said in her press release. All data published is from 2011-2015.

A package of government transparency bills making the governor and Legislature subject to Michigan public record laws has reported out of a House committee in a unanimous vote.

The reform package strives to open the majority of the Legislature’s records to public inspection and would eliminate many existing public records exemptions for the governor and lieutenant governor by including these records under the umbrella of the Freedom of Information Act.

Lawmakers are hopeful the bills will pass the Legislature prior to adjournment for the summer. If passed, the reform measures would apply only to records created after January 1, 2017.

Government Tech

“Morning Tech” by Tony Romm, Erin Mershon, Brooks Boliek and Alex Byers on Politico.

“The Mobile Wave Still Looks Like a Trickle in Government” by Jack Moore in Nextgov.

“From Federal Hill, federal contractor patrols social networks for spies” by Ian Duncan in The Baltimore Sun.

“Why Commercial Clouds are More Secure than Federal Data Centers” by Roger Baker in Nextgov.

“Data-Driven Innovation: Why States Should Build Multipurpose Analytics Platforms” by Daniel Castro in Government Technology.

Social Media

“Inside the Twitter world of U.S. Sen. Cory Booker” by Everett Merrill in the Daily Record.

Nevada: “Money talks: What Las Vegas-area cities spend on communication” by Bethany Barnes, Ben Botkin, James Dehaven and Eric Hartley in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Open Government

“Yes, That Text Message Is a Public Record” by Michael Grass in Government Executive.

“Can Transparency Be Legislated?” by Paul Eder in Government Executive.

The state of Oklahoma has just announced the debut of its new web portal, OK.gov. The site sports a new look and promises to offer a wealth of searchable  datasets on Data.OK.gov. For instance, you can view state expenditures and vendor payments by quarter.

According to their site: “Data.OK.gov strives to make Oklahoma government more transparent through an unprecedented level of openness in Oklahoma government. By publishing raw datasets in different formats, you can look up statistics, build applications, conduct analysis and perform research. Data.OK.gov allows for a simple way to gather Oklahoma government data about the economy, public health, transportation, environment, and more on one website. Centralized access to this data saves you from having to visit multiple websites.”

Perhaps you don’t find the information you need on OK.gov? The state invites you to send your feedback and let them know what data you would like to see included.

Here is the press release for the new site.

This week is Sunshine Week, the annual initiative by the American Society of News Editors that promotes and celebrates open government.  Here are some of the first news stories about awards given for online government transparency:

“California state government’s website gets high marks for transparency” by Jon Ortiz in the Sacramento Bee.

“IL governments awarded for online transparency” by Andrew Thomason in the Illinois Statehouse News.

“DC.gov Web site gets high marks for transparency” by Mike DeBonis in the Washington Post.

“6 Utah websites get government transparency awards” by The Associated Press in the Daily Herald.

“3 Richmond-area agencies honored for online transparency” by Jeremy Slayton in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

“National group honors 14 Virginia entities for online government transparency” by The Associated Press in the Washington Post.

“W.Va.’s state website honored for transparency” by The Associated Press in the Wausau Daily Herald.