PRESS RELEASE
-For Immediate Release-
March 16, 2011

Contact: Brian Gumm, (202) 683-4812, bgumm@ombwatch.org

OMB Watch's Sean Moulton Inducted
into National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2011—Today, Sean Moulton was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame at the National FOI Day conference in Washington, DC. Moulton is the Director of Federal Information Policy at OMB Watch.

The Hall of Fame is coordinated by the First Amendment Center and honors those who have made significant contributions to protecting and expanding access to government information. It was created in 1996 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the federal Freedom of Information Act. A new class of inductees has been installed every five years.

Moulton said, "I'm deeply honored to be receiving this award, and I thank the First Amendment Center for recognizing the importance of freedom of information and government openness in general." He added, "I'd also like to acknowledge the work of OMB Watch's staff and all of the unsung heroes in the open government community. This award is as much theirs as it is mine."

Moulton has been with OMB Watch since 2002. The program he manages works on a variety of open government issues, and he and his staff operate and maintain RTK NET (www.rtknet.org), an environmental information and database site that has existed since 1989. In 2006, Moulton co-managed development of the groundbreaking FedSpending.org, a website that contains information on trillions of dollars of federal spending organized in an open, searchable format.

More recently, Moulton coordinated a diverse group of organizations and individuals from across the political spectrum to craft a set of information policy recommendations, which was presented to the Obama transition team and the incoming leadership of the 111th Congress following the 2008 elections. Moulton also played a role in the formation of the Obama administration's Open Government Directive, participated in evaluating agencies' Open Government Plans in 2010, and provided insight and feedback during the development of the administration's executive order on controlled unclassified information (CUI).

Moulton will join OMB Watch Executive Director Gary D. Bass in the Hall of Fame. Bass was inducted in 2006. More information about the Hall of Fame is available at http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/about.aspx?item=FOIA_Hall_of_Fame.

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OMB Watch is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting government accountability, citizen participation in public policy decisions, and the use of fiscal and regulatory policy to serve the public interest. Find OMB Watch on Facebook and Twitter.