Twenty-five groups dedicated to openness and accountability asked the leaders of Congressional party caucuses and conferences to post their rules online. Public access to these rules would provide essential information about how Congress governs—how legislation leaves chambers, who may lead committees, and more.
On August 11th, Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) deleted records from several federal courts from its online database with little notice, once again spotlighting how PACER obstructs public access to court records. PACER is maintained by the Administrative Office of the US Courts and charges 10 cents for each page of public court documents downloaded.
The public’s right to know is at the heart of the United States’ founding, enabling public debate and informed dissent. The federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reflects this tenet by giving any member of the public the ability to ask for a copy of a government record, and giving them the ability to ask a Court to intervene if the government refuses to comply with the law.
According to updated guidance the Administration issued on agency open government plans, agencies were supposed to publish updated plans to make themselves more open, participatory and collaborative. To help the open government community keep track of which agencies have posted plans and make it easy to see what kind of activities agencies intend to engage in over the next two years, OpenTheGovernment.org created the below spreadsheet.
On May 29th, 2014 Executive Director Patrice McDermott testified before the Subcommittee on Government Operations of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Her testimony addressed the growing use of the unclassified designation of information in executive branch departments and agencies.
Members of civil society are invited to attend meetings of the interagency open government working group on a quarterly basis. Our notes on the content of the meeting are below.
On Monday, April 28th, the House of Representatives passed the DATA Act. The Senate passed the same version of the bill earlier this month. The act, if signed into law, will create uniform standards for federal spending data and allow the government and public to more easily track spending across government.
By the start of the next Congress, greater opportunities will exist for the public to have better access to information about the legislative process thanks to language included in a House Appropriations bill. The language, championed by Representative Quigley, directs the Clerk to work with the Librarian of Congress and Public Printer to publish bill status information in a way that computers can easily process, making it easily reusable by apps and websites.
On April 10th, the Senate passed a bill that will establish uniform federal standards for publishing government spending data. The Data Act ensures that spending information will be available as open, machine readable data. The House passed a similar bill late last year, and is expected to approve the Senate’s version.
On April 8 OpenTheGovernment.org and a number of our partners sat down with Tony West, the Associate Attorney General (the number three person at the Department of Justice DOJ), to discuss areas where we believe DOJ could take significant steps to make the department more open and accountable.
