Increasing National Security by Decreasing Secrecy

Finally: Amazon’s Rekognition Moratorium Long Overdue

Facial Recognition Technology Regulation: A Practical Guide for Congress

Note: On Amazon’s one-year moratorium on police use of Rekognition, Lisa Rosenberg, executive director of Open The Government, issued the following statement: Amazon’s decision to implement this one-year moratorium on police   Read Full

June 11, 2020

Long-Lasting Police Reform Must Embrace Transparency To Be Effective

George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police is the most recent in a spate of African-Americans dying in encounters with police officers around the country. As protests over   Read Full

June 3, 2020

Trump Administration Restricted IG’s Access in JEDI Contract Investigation

On new audit report stating Defense Department inspector general could not fully review contested $10 billion JEDI Cloud contract because of “presidential communications privilege,” Lisa Rosenberg issued the following statement.   Read Full

April 15, 2020

Organizations Call on Congress to Oppose DoD Proposal to Weaken Lobbying Restrictions

A cross-section of organizations urged Congress to oppose the Department of Defense’s proposal to weaken restrictions on lobbying activity by former senior officials in the National Defense Authorization Act for   Read Full

25 Civil Society Organizations Urge Congress to Reject DoD’s Secrecy Proposal

Open The Government joined a coalition of civil society organizations urging Congress to reject the Department of Defense’s Freedom of Information Act exemption proposal in the National Defense Authorization Act   Read Full

DoD proposals for NDAA would weaken transparency, accountability when they’re needed most

Slated for late May, the markup schedule for this year’s National Defense Authorization Act is now in flux because of the congressional response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While we don’t   Read Full

April 13, 2020

New OTG Report Finds Abuses Persist at DHS Fusion Centers

Open The Government today released a new report on state and local “fusion centers,” created to share counterterrorism intelligence across government agencies to prevent the communication and coordination failures that   Read Full

March 26, 2020

Congress Must Reassert Check on Executive Branch After Trump Airstrike Against Iran

Statement of Lisa Rosenberg, Executive Director, Open The Government. Note: The U.S. drone strike that recently killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Iraq stirred talk of war as Iran,   Read Full

January 9, 2020

LA Times Op-Ed: We need the full truth about the CIA’s torture program

CIA lobby seal

The new movie “The Report” is a powerful telling of the story of the Senate investigation into the horrors of the CIA’s torture program and the fight to allow the   Read Full

November 21, 2019

Letter to Committee on Homeland Security Entered into Congressional Record at DHS FOIA Hearing

At the ‘Public’s Right to Know: FOIA at the Department of Homeland Security’ hearing held by the Oversight, Management, and Accountability Subcommittee of the Committee on Homeland Security, several Open   Read Full

October 18, 2019