Public Data and Websites

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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State Governments Follow Federal Lead in Data Reporting Technology

President Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 inaugural promise to lead the most transparent administration in history has had a major impact on federal information technology, which has led to new developments in data reporting at the state level. Spurred by federal requirements to report Recovery Act spending, states have created new reporting technologies and new transparency experiments.

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OMB Watch Welcomes New Standard of Openness Heralded by Obama Administration's Open Government Directive

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2009—OMB Watch applauds the Obama administration's latest effort to create a more open and accountable government: the release of the Open Government Directive. The directive has been in development since the first day of the Obama administration, when the president issued a memo tasking OMB and other key officials to develop the directive.

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Open Government Directive to be Released During Live Webcast - 11am, 12/8

Dec 7, 2009 by Roger Strother*

The open government directive is scheduled to be released at 11am on Dec. 8. The announcement will be made in a live webcast hosted by US CIO Vivek Kundra and US CTO Aneesh Chopra. There will be a live forum following the announcement so that citizens may give feedback and ask questions. Please watch the live announcement here or on the White House website and check back with the OMB Watch blog for more analysis. Dowload the directive here [PDF].

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Technology Sector Increases Its Presence in Open Government Dialogue

In addition to nonprofit organizations, educational groups, and individual advocates, corporations have recently begun to stake out positions in the ongoing open government dialogue. Among these private sector actors are Adobe, Google, and Microsoft. These new voices are putting both money and technological resources behind an effort to advance the Obama administration’s commitment to transparency.

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White House Seeking Comment on Information Policy

Oct 27, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is asking the public for ideas on ways to improve the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) – the 29-year-old law that governs federal information collection, dissemination, and management. In a notice in today’s Federal Register, the White House announces the opening of a 60 day public comment period.

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Groups Call for Recovery.gov Overhaul Before Major Data Release on October 30

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2009—Three nonprofit organizations that have been tracking the Recovery Act today called for the Obama administration to overhaul its jobs data system before releasing its first large set of data on Oct. 30.

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Data Use a Key Element of EPA Clean Water Plan

Oct 16, 2009 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency released a "Clean Water Act Enforcement Action Plan." The plan lays out a broad vision for clean water enforcement as well as specific goals the agency will take in the coming months and years to improve enforcement at the state and federal level.

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OMB Watch Appeals Recovery Act FOIA Decision

Sep 18, 2009 by Sam Rosen-Amy

Back when the Recovery Board released the Recovery.gov redesign contract, many in the transparency community were upset at the extent to which the General Services Administration redacted the contract. While we certainly expected General Services Administration (GSA) - the agency which conducts most of the federal government's procurement - to redact proprietary information, the document had massive swaths blacked out, including such ridiculous sections as the number of peak users and one part titled "Introduction."

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Presidential Records Act Enters the 21st Century with Social Media

Sep 16, 2009 by Roger Strother*

Earlier today, the Washington Times ran an article that appeared critical of the Obama administration under the overly dramatic title “[White House] Collects web users’ data without notice.” This White House effort is, however, unsurprising and mandated by law – the Presidential Records Act. However, with the new age of government engaging citizens on Facebook, Twitter, and other Web 2.0 social tools the task of archiving electronic presidential communications is more complicated and requires the application of modern archival standards.

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EPA Pushing Data Out to the Public

The Obama administration has made government transparency a high priority in its early months, and of all the federal agencies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appears to be making the quickest progress in turning rhetoric into action. Across a range of issues, the EPA is taking proactive steps to improve transparency, collecting and releasing to the public important environmental data needed to protect the environment and public health.

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