Strengthening Checks and Balances Archives

Congrats, President-Elect Biden! Now, Restore Accountability in the Federal Government

40 Advocacy Organizations & Experts Release Accountability 2021 Reform Agenda for Biden Administration — Open The Government today announced Accountability 2021, a robust agenda of actionable recommendations that president-elect Joe Read Full

November 23, 2020

DHS Records Destruction Proposal Would Sanction Agency’s Persistent Misconduct

WASHINGTON – A coalition of transparency and accountability organizations, led by Open The Government, strongly oppose the Department of Homeland Security’s proposal to reclassify as “temporary” complaint records related to the agency’s extensive Read Full

September 30, 2020

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

OTG endorses stronger oversight, accountability, and transparency provisions in new CORE Act

Open The Government and several coalition partners endorsed the new Coronavirus Oversight and Recovery Ethics (CORE) Act, legislation introduced by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Chris Coons Read Full

May 14, 2020

Trump Administration Awards $55 Million N95 Masks Contract to Questionable Company

The shortage of N95 masks, vital medical supplies that can help curb the spread of COVID-19, has made headlines due to the pandemic. This time because the Trump administration awarded Read Full

April 20, 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

April 15, 2020

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

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

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