On July 19, 2016, CfA released a new report, Google’s Silicon Tower, revealing how academics and experts funded by Google have played a major role at academic and government conferences, debating some of the company’s core issues. Nearly all of the Google-funded participants failed to disclose their financial ties to Google, now a subsidiary of Alphabet, Inc.
On July 15, 2016, CfA Executive Director Anne Weismann issued a statement in response to the Department of Defense’s refusal to investigate Secretary Ashton Carter for misusing his private email account.
On July 14, 2016, CfA released a new report, Documenting Discrimination, uncovering how national right wing religious groups – working through smaller local groups – are spearheading the movement to legalize discrimination against LGBT individuals through Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”) legislation.
On July 7, 2016, a bipartisan coalition of Members of Congress and 2016 congressional candidates filed a complaint before the Federal Election Commission seeking to end super PAC spending in US elections.
On July 7, 2016, CfA joined a coalition of 18 organizations, led by OpenTheGovernment.org, in opposing the FBI's proposal to exempt its biometrics database - the Next Generation Identification (NGI) system - from nearly all key provisions of the Privacy Act. The coalition believes that the FBI's system needs stronger privacy and transparency protections than the FBI's current proposal incorporates.