Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has taken the unpopular stance that it does not have to release its visitor logs to the public.  This is an incredibly disappointing move that casts doubts on Obama’s rhetoric of increased executive branch transparency & accountability.  Hiding these logs prevents the public from better knowing who is lobbying the president.

On June 3, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the House’s administrative manager to put Congressional quarterly expense reports online as soon as possible.  These reports, traditionally available only in the form of three-volume bound sets, contain expense data for member spending.  The letter from Pelosi can be found on the Speaker’s blog, The Gavel, and represents an unprecedented level of Congressional transparency…if they do it right.

Over on the White House blog, Beth Noveck, Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Open Government, writes that the administration is officially ending the “brainstorming” portion of its Open Government Dialogue process tonight at midnight. Noveck states that the administration will begin reviewing the submissions for preparation of the “discussion” phase which begins on June 3rd.  The brainstorming phase, however, was incredibly short and wrought with problems which I will outline below.  I only hope that the administration’s subsequent steps in the process represent dramatic improvements.

Sen. Lieberman (I-CT) has submitted an amendment to the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009 which would withhold any “photograph relating to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States” if the Secretary of Defense certifies that the release of the photos could endanger citizens or the armed forces.   This incredibly broad statement could cover photos of all detainees captured in any future actions taken by the U.S. military.  If passed, these government records which belong to the people would no longer be available under FOIA.