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

DOJ Guidance Brings Measure of Accountability to FOIA Responses

Last week the Office of Information Policy (OIP) at the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued guidance to make agencies' use of exceptions to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) more transparent. The guidance should help bring clarity and accountability to a practice that concerns many openness advocates.

09/18/2012

5 Issues Congress Should Seriously Consider

As the public begins to decide who should represent them in the halls of Congress during the next session, we thought it would be a good time to begin thinking about what issues the 113^th Congress should address to make the federal government more open and accountable. Read more for our list:

09/14/2012

Explore the 2012 Secrecy Report

Push the play button to explore last year's trends in secrecy in openness! Use your arrow keys to move from one snapshot to the next. For full details, read the Report.

2011 Trends in Secrecy and Openness on Prezi

09/11/2012

Get Involved: 10 Open Government Questions for 2012

There are a lot of distractions during election season. There are more and more gotcha ads, and increasingly less discussion about what really matters. At OpenTheGovernment.org, POGO, the American Society of News Editors (ASNE), and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) we spend a lot of time thinking about how our government can be more transparent, accountable, and effective. We'd love to be having conversations with every candidate to help educate them and to inform the work that we do in Washington---no matter the results of the election. Perhaps together we can!

08/27/2012

New Step Toward Making Sure the Government Can Find and Share E-Records

On Friday, August 24, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) belatedly issued the Managing Government Records Directive. The Directive lays out the framework for how the federal government plans to make sure it is effectively and efficiently managing electronic records. There is much for the open government community to like in the Directive: a requirement that agencies designate a senior official to oversee records management and an emphasis on managing records in the cloud, for example. And there is one big thing for open government advocates to not like: deadlines that mean it will be many more years before we can say with any certainty that federal government agencies are not improperly destroying or otherwise losing records.

08/27/2012

Are Agencies’ Social Media Actually Furthering Openness?

For government entities both large and small--from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to the Department of Defense--social media accounts are being advertised as transparency and openness initiatives. Facilitating conversations between the public and the government is a great step towards greater openness and access. Asking for input and response in the public view could globalize the town hall structure of public access and community. The federal government’s social media presence should not be reduced, however, to a check-the-box requirement for agencies, nor should it be the main stage event for transparency and openness efforts. It is essential that agencies recognize the difference between tools and substance.

08/22/2012

OGIS and Improving FOIA

At OpenTheGovernment.org, we often highlight what’s missing or failing in the government’s efforts to create a more open government. One of the most common frustrations we hear from our partners and the public is the varied inefficiencies of FOIA—its delays, ever-growing backlogs, technical challenges, and more. These problems make it all the more important to call attention to the steps that are being made to remedy these frustrations, and allow the public’s voice to be heard.

08/13/2012

Q&A: Congress' Controversial "Anti-Leaks" Proposal

Using resources and analysis from our friends at the Sunshine in Government Initiative (SGI), the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), and the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News, we've pulled together some general Q&As to help you understand why the "anti-leaks" proposal included in the Senate's 2013 Intelligence Authorization bill is bad for openness and accountability.

08/08/2012

Language in Senate Intell Bill Threatens Accountability of Security Clearance System

As drafted, the Senate's recently-released 2013 Intelligence Authorization bill deletes the requirement that the Intelligence Community report annually to Congress on security clearance determinations. These reports, which are prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), were required by the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act. The latest report revealed that 4.8 million people are cleared for access to our government’s protected information.

07/31/2012

Groups Oppose Senate Intell Committee Proposal

Today OpenTheGovernment.org joined our colleagues at POGO and others in objecting to a dangerous provision in the Senate's recently-unveiled version of the 2013 intelligence authorization bill - which could come to the floor for a vote very quickly - that makes the unauthorized disclosure of any classified information a punishable offense, regardless of its public policy significance, and threaten

07/30/2012

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