Preserving Records

Groups Protest Labor's Removal of Child Labor Rulemaking Records

Last week OpenTheGovernment.org and several of our partners and allies joined the Sunlight Foundation in asking the Department of Labor to re-post documents online relating to recently-withdrawn proposed rules concerning child labor in agriculture.

05/29/2012

NARA Report Shows Continued Govt-wide Records Mis-Management

The May 1 release of a report by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), based on surveys agencies filled out about their record keeping practices, shows how much more work needs to be done before we can say with any certainty that the government is not at risk of losing potentially important records.

05/15/2012

Why Did Rodriguez Get Away with Destroying the Torture Tapes – and What Happened to the Rule of Law?

Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan asked in his column in the Daily Beast, “Why Did Rodriguez Destroy The Torture Tapes?” It was good to see someone call out that aspect of Rodriguez’s – and the CIA’s – illegality. Sullivan’s is an important question that Rodriguez answered in the shallow, self-congratulatory manner exhibited in the rest of the disturbing CBS 60 Minutes interview. Sullivan’s response to Rodriguez’s claims is well worth a read.

A question that Sullivan does not ask, nor has any other journalist to our knowledge, is “Why did Rodriguez get away with destroying the torture tapes?” When OpenTheGovernment.org Executive Director Patrice McDermott received the 2011 James Madison Award from the American Library Association, she devoted her acceptance remarks to the outrage of Rodriguez’s destruction of the tapes – despite a court order to preserve them – and the unwillingness of the Justice Department to hold him accountable.

05/04/2012

NARA Survey Shows Continued Govt-wide Records Mis-Management

The May 1 release of an annual report by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), based on surveys agencies filled out about their record keeping practices, shows how much more work needs to be done before we can say with any certainty that the government is not at risk of losing potentially important records.

05/02/2012

OpenTheGovernment.org and CREW Release Analysis of Effect of Obama FOIA Policy

An analysis released in late December by CREW and OpenTheGovernment.org of data collected by the government on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) processing reveals challenges the Obama Administration must overcome to create the "unprecedented level of openness" President Obama promised on his first day in office.

01/10/2012

Act Now to Help ARL Start A National Effort To Digitize All Public Government Info

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) recently sent out an alert directing supporters to a public petition, "Yes We Scan” on the White House's "We the People" site calling for the establishment of a Presidential commission or a high-level interagency Task Force that will answer within 1 ye

01/10/2012

"Records of Elected Political Officials Belong to the Public"

On December 6 Patrice McDermott, Director of OpenTheGovernment.org, appeared in a segment on CNN to discuss recent revelations regarding Mitt Romney's handling of records in his final days as Governor of Massachusetts.

12/07/2011

Partners React to Presidential Memorandum on Managing Government Records

Several of our coalition partners and allies have weighed in on the President's Memorandum on Managing Government Records. The initiative requires each agency head to report on their current plans for improving records management programs, to outline current obstacles to sound, cost-effective records management policies, and to catalog potential reforms and improvements.

11/28/2011

OpenTheGovernment.org and CREW Statement on Presidential Memo on Managing Government Records

WASHINGTON, November 28, 2011 - OpenTheGovernment.org and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) applaud the President's Memo on Managing Government Records for taking critical steps towards instituting effective and efficient records management in the federal government. As past experiences demonstrated, failing to properly manage records, especially email, creates an unacceptable risk of losing valuable information that is necessary to understand the development of national policies and to hold officials accountable for their decisions.

11/28/2011

Is a Massive Destruction of US Federal Court Records Underway?

Recently, our community became aware of a move in the US Federal Courts to dispose of large numbers of court records. This is not as draconian as it may seem at first read. We checked in with the National Archives and Records Administration – just to make sure this destruction was known to and approved by them. It is. NARA told us:

08/09/2011

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