New Executive Order Will Improve Data Transparency
May 21, 2013
On May 9, President Obama signed Executive Order 13642, "Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information." The new policy reaffirms the administration's commitment to transparency and lays a framework for agencies to improve public access to, and use of, government data.
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Center for Effective Government Welcomes New Executive Order on Transparency
May 9, 2013
WASHINGTON, May 9, 2013— Today, President Obama signed an executive order on data and information transparency. Titled "Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information," the order was accompanied by an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo detailing the new policy and its implementation. The policy is intended to make public information more open and more easily accessible to the American people.
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Open Government Advocates Disappointed by Rollback of STOCK Act Requirements for Online Access
Apr 18, 2013
Just a year after enacting it, Congress and the president rolled back a key transparency provision of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (STOCK Act) instead of amending it to address concerns.
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Shortcomings in Transparency Performance Point to the Need for Reforms of Freedom of Information Act
Apr 9, 2013
The Center for Effective Government's recent analysis, Freedom of Information Act Performance, 2012: Agencies Are Processing More Requests but Redacting More Often, highlighted some troubling trends in agencies' performance in providing information to the public under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and found wide disparities among agencies. These shortcomings show that legislation will be needed to repair the current weaknesses in the FOIA system.
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After Four Years, Obama Delivers Policy Leadership on Transparency, but Agency Implementation Is Inconsistent
Mar 12, 2013
Four years ago, President Obama entered office offering an inspiring vision for a more open and participatory government. A new report by Center for Effective Government staff credits the Obama administration for using its first term to construct a policy foundation that could make that vision a reality. However, the actual implementation of open government policies within federal agencies has been inconsistent and sometimes weak.
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Delivering on Open Government: The Obama Administration's Unfinished Legacy
Mar 10, 2013
This report examines progress made during President Obama’s first term toward open government goals outlined in a comprehensive set of recommendations that the open government community issued in November 2008, titled Moving Toward a 21st Century Right-to-Know Agenda. We examine activity in the three main areas of the 2008 report: creating an environment within government that is supportive of transparency, improving public use of government information, and reducing the secrecy related to national security issues.
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Obama's Legacy of Transparency is Unfinished
Mar 10, 2013
WASHINGTON, March 10, 2013—In a report released today, the Center for Effective Government (formerly OMB Watch) examines the Obama administration's progress on open government during the president's first term. The review finds that the administration has issued important policy reforms, but that the implementation of White House policies has been inconsistent across federal agencies.
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Open Government Gets a Second Term
Jan 23, 2013
Four years ago, when Barack Obama assumed the office of the President of the United States, he signaled his commitment to open and accountable government with a set of directives and executive orders designed to make his administration “the most transparent in history.” Significant progress was made in his first term, but the president's vision has not yet been translated into across-all-agencies improvements in openness, and in the area of national security, most civil liberties advocates are disappointed.
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Hurricane Sandy Highlights Role of Government Information in Our Everyday Lives
Nov 5, 2012
As the country continues to recover from the effects of Hurricane Sandy, one lesson is already clear: government information plays a vital role in Americans' everyday lives whether they realize it or not. Information created, collected, and disseminated by government agencies alerted the nation to the storm, tracked its every move, and helped millions of Americans to prepare.
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Scaling Up Transparency: New Approaches Could Yield Greater Openness
Oct 23, 2012
Two reforms launched by federal agencies this month represent new approaches to more efficiently releasing government information. New websites to publish declassified documents and records released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) could set new precedents and improve on older practices by making the information available to everyone online.
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