Open Government Directive Released
The White House Tuesday issued a highly anticipated directive outlining how federal agencies should make operations more open and solicit public opinions, setting an aggressive timeline for them to implement the new practices, Government Executive reported. The guidance, which President Obama announced on his first day in office, is intended to promote an open government, in which the public is more involved in its daily business.
The 11-page document adheres to principles Obama has detailed throughout his first year in office: transparency, in which disclosing government information is the default; participation, which incorporates citizen input in policymaking; and collaboration, which creates partnerships inside the government and with industry. Agencies must deliver on many initiatives in the directive. Depending on the requirement, deadlines are 45, 60, 90 or 120 days. In a nod to complaints about the accuracy of stimulus job-creation data, the directive calls for separate guidance within 120 days that demands agencies report quarterly on their progress in enhancing the quality of spending information.
The American Civil Liberties Union voiced concern with an exception included in the directive for "information whose release would threaten national security." Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, said in a statement, "While the Obama administration should be commended for the issuance of this directive, we remain concerned that executive agencies are invoking national security concerns as a pretext to suppress records that relate to government misconduct." And Association for Competitive Technology Executive Director Morgan Reed questioned the "open formats requirement," saying agencies should have the flexibility to use both open and proprietary formats "in order to meet the needs of all Americans."
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