OpenTheGovernment.org | Americans for Less Secrecy, More DemocracyOpenTheGovernment.org seeks to advance the public's right to know and to reduce secrec

Share Your Open Government Ideas with the White House

The White House will release its self-assessment for the Open Government Partnership this spring. The administration is seeking public input as they reflect upon the successes and challenges of the implementation of the first National Action Plan. The deadline for comments is Friday, March 1st.

02/25/2013

CISPA 2.0 as Dangerous to the FOIA as CISPA 1.0

HR 624, the "new" cybersecurity legislation introduced by the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee threatens to blow a hole in the public's right to know under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In the interest of encouraging private companies to share cyber threat information with the federal government, the bill, which is called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), unwisely and unnecessarily cuts of all access to any information that is shared.

02/14/2013

Happy Valentine's Day From OpenTheGovernment.org

In honor of Valentine's Day, we've written our own love poem for open government. Show us your open gov love! Send us your own stanza on Facebook!

02/13/2013

Dear Mr. President: Here's How to Secure Your Open Government Legacy

During last night’s State of The Union Address, President Obama pledged to be more transparent to the American people and to the world about the Administration’s policy regarding the targeting, detention, and prosecution of terrorists, saying, “I recognize that in our democracy, no one should just take my word that we're doing things the right way.” President Obama is right, but the need for greater transparency goes well beyond the Administration’s counterterrorism policies.

02/13/2013

Leaked White Paper Re-opens Debate on Drone Attacks on Citizens; We Still Want the OLC Memos

Whoever provided the Department of Justice white paper to NBC, thank you. Due in part to your decision to share information about the Administration’s controversial policy on the targeted killing of American citizens, the issue is back on the front pages and is a topic of discussion in the halls of Congress and at dinner tables. Additionally, your actions are another reminder about how much we do not know, and why the government must release its legal justifications for the program.

02/06/2013

A Second Term Open Government Agenda

"Four years ago, the coalition I lead welcomed President Obama’s pledge to hold himself and his administration to a new standard of openness. Today, I urge the president to implement early in his second term an agenda that advances that promised transparency. Openness needs to be the default position for the federal government."

On The Hill today, Executive Director Patrice McDermott outlines the progress made and the path forward for open government. We've broken down the steps below.

02/01/2013

A Status Report on FOIAOnline

As you may know, OpenTheGovernment.org has been running a project that chronicles the experience of using FOIAonline as compared with other agencies’ processing systems. FOIAonline is a shared service that makes it easier for the public to make and track FOIA requests. Our assistant director, Amy Bennett, explained the project to the audience and offered a range of grades for FOIAonline and other agencies during a panel at last week's symposium, “Transparency in the Obama Administration: A Fourth Year Assessment,” held by the Collaboration on Government Secrecy at the Washington College of Law.

01/22/2013

GAO Prepares for a New Congress, and the Public Wins

This summer, we took a look at the Government Accountability Office’s website and lamented that the wealth of valuable information on the site was sometimes buried underneath an unwieldy and unsearchable format. There were moments of effective organization, but GAO.gov wasn’t fulfilling its potential as an informative tool for the public.

01/09/2013

Signing Statement on Defense Authorization Bill a Bad Sign for Transparency?

In a signing statement accompanying the National Defense Authorization Act, President Obama wrote that the provision "could be interpreted in a manner that would interfere with my authority to manage and direct executive branch officials." Troublingly, the statement said furthe

01/08/2013

112th Congress Goes Out with a Bang -- and a Boo

On its way out the door, the 112th Congress took action on a number of pending controversial secrecy bills -- making last minute improvements to annual authorization bills in order to protect the public's ability to get information, expanding contractor whistleblower rights, but also opting to maintain the secrecy surrounding the government's wireless wiretapping program.<

01/08/2013

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