In order to promote open government, President Obama and Congress should take specific steps, including the following:
President Obama should lead an administration dedicated to transparency and accountability.
The President should ensure that transparency and the
publication of information are recognized as important goals throughout the
federal government. A President can show dedication to this cause immediately
upon taking office, by instructing agencies that the government's first
responsibility is to share information with the public unless a FOIA exception
clearly applies.
President Obama and Congress should utilize new technology to promote interactive citizen involvement in government decision-making.
The President and Congress should embrace Web 2.0 technology by taking advantage of wikis and social networking tools for public decision-making processes, augmenting traditional technologies and methods for commenting on proposed federal regulations and other policy initiatives.
Agencies should ensure that all of their online resources are made available in open formats and are searchable by major public search engines.
President Obama should assiduously enforce the open government laws and ensure that the executive branch is promptly and fully responsive to FOIA requests.
The Open Government Act of 2007 creates new fiscal incentives for
governmental agencies to comply with statutory deadlines for responding to FOIA
requests. It enhances the ability of the public to pursue FOIA requests by
clarifying the circumstances in which an agency must pay attorney's fees in
FOIA litigation. It also creates a system for tracking pending FOIA requests
and it ensures that independent journalists have equal access to information
available under FOIA.
The President should make implementation of the Open
Government Act of 2007 a priority, including by ensuring that agencies will reply
to FOIA requests in a timely fashion.
Useful links:
CDT
report Hiding in Plain Sight, co-authored with OMBWatch. This report reveals
that vast amounts of government information remain invisible when using popular
search engines
CDT's
OpenCRS project makes Congressional Research Service reports easily
accessible for the public
