Reports

Civil Society Groups Issue One-Year Progress Report on 2014-2015 US National Action Plan

According to the second civil society progress report on the implementation of the United States' Second National Action Plan, the US government remains on-course to meet the majority of its commitments one year into the two-year implementation period.

Civil Society Groups Issue Progress Report on 2nd US National Action Plan

According to the first civil society progress report on the implementation of the United States’ Second National Action Plan, the United States government appears to be on-course to meet the majority of its commitments six months into the implementation period. This report draws on the expertise and experiences of a wide range of civil society groups engaging on the commitments and features their knowledge of the Administration's efforts to meaningfully implement its commitments and to collaborate effectively with civil society.

Former-Representative Mickey Edwards on Restoring Accountability to National Security Programs

For the release of this Secrecy Report, we asked former-Representative Mickey Edwards, who is also the author of, The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans and a noted commentator on restoring the Constitution’s balances of power, to provide insight on how to secure better oversight of national security programs.

How could Congress’ oversight of intelligence programs be improved? Or how can the system of checks and balances be restored to our intelligence programs?

First, the congress must reclaim its constitutional authority to oversee the executive branch, decide on questions of war and peace, regulate the armed forces, and determine how federal funds are to be expended.  These are the proper powers of congress but more importantly they are the obligations the constitution places on congress to ensure that the people, through their representatives, control the activities of the federal government.

Unprecedented Civil Society Report on US OGP: One Small Step for Open Government

The US met most of its 2011 commitments to make the government more open and accountable according to an unprecedented evaluation of the US’ efforts to implement its first National Action Plan. President Obama presented the US’s commitments at the launch of the Open Government Partnership on September 20, 2011.

While the Plan reflected many of the priorities of open government advocates, the specific commitments included in the plan do not put the US on a path to accomplish those goals quickly. According to Patrice McDermott, Executive Director of OpenTheGovernment.org, “The Administration should be commended for taking good first, if often small, steps forward on a number of issues. Achieving the greater goal of transforming government to be open and accountable to the public, though, will require the proverbial giant leap.”