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Open Government Authorities, Laws, Policies and Guidance

These are the current authorities under which the Open Government program is operating.

Authorities

The Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, generally provides that any person has the right to request access to federal agency records or information except to the extent the records are protected from disclosure by any of nine exemptions contained in the law or by one of three special law enforcement record exclusions.
The Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, provides privacy protections for records containing information about individuals (i.e., citizen and legal permanent resident) that are collected and maintained by the federal government and are retrieved by a personal identifier. The Act provides safeguards against invasion of personal privacy through the misuse of records by Federal Agencies and requires agencies to safeguard information contained in a system of records.
The Open Government Act of 2007, promotes accessibility, accountability, and openness in Government by strengthening 5 U.S.C. § 552. Also codifies several provisions of Executive Order 13,392, "Improving Agency Disclosure of Information."
The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (amends the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002, 44 U.S.C. § 3541), requires agencies to develop, document, and implement an agency-wide program to provide information security for the information and information systems that support the operations and assets of an agency.
The Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1905, establishes criminal penalties for the unauthorized disclosure of certain confidential business information.
Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) is designed to reduce the public’s burden of answering unnecessary, duplicative, and burdensome government surveys.

Executive Orders (E.O.) (click here for listing of E.O.)

Executive Order (E.O.) 13563, Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review (January 18, 2011), requires each agency to review their existing significant regulations, and consider how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them in accordance with what has been learned.
Executive Order (E.O) 13571, Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service (April 27, 2011), requires agencies to develop and implement a customer service plan and publish the plan on the Open Government web page.
Executive Order (E.O) 13610, Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens(May 10, 2012), requires regular reporting on agency efforts to streamline, improve, and eliminate regulatory requirements..

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memoranda (click here for listing of all OMB Memos)

OMB M-09-12, President’s Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government - Interagency Collaboration (February 24, 2009), established the initial OMB Open Government Working Group meetings which invited Department/Agenies to join the Open and Innovative Government Community which would be conducted as a collaborative, interagency process.
OMB Memorandum M-10-06, Open Government Directive (December 8, 2009), requires agencies to publish government information online, improve the quality of government information, create and institutionalize a culture of Open Government, and create an enabling policy framework for Open Government.
OMB Memorandum M-10-11, Guidance on the Use of Challenges and Prizes to Promote Open Government (March 8, 2010) highlights, for agencies, policy and legal issues related to the implementation of the Obama Administration’s commitment to increase the use of prizes and challenges as tools for promoting Open Government, innovation, and other national priorities.
OMB Memorandum M-10-22, Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies (June 25, 2010) establishes new procedures and provides updated guidance and requirements for agency use of web measurement and customization technologies.
OMB Memorandum M-10-23, Guidance for Agency Use of Third-Party Websites and Applications (June 25, 2010) recognizes that Open Government increasingly relies on Federal agency uses of new technologies, such as social media networks and web 2.0 applications. Such uses offer important opportunities for promoting the goals of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. However, increased use of these technologies also requires greater vigilance by Federal agencies to protect individual privacy.
OMB Memorandum M-10-30, Science and Technology Priorities for the FY 2012 Budget (July 21, 2010) requires agencies to develop and regularly update their data sharing policies for research performers and create incentives for sharing data publicly in interoperable formats to ensure maximum value, consistent with privacy, national security, and confidentiality concerns.
OMB Memorandum M-11-02, Sharing Data While Protecting Privacy (November 3, 2010), requires agencies to develop and implement solutions that allow data sharing to move forward in a manner that complies with applicable privacy laws, regulations, and policies.
OMB Memorandum M-11-19, Retrospective Analysis ofExisting Significant Regulations (April 25, 2011), instructed agencies with substantial regulatory responsibilities to disclose to the public information about their regulatory inspections, citations, reviews, warnings, revocations, and other regulatory compliance and enforcement activities.
OMB Memorandum M-11-24, Implementing Executive Order 13571 on Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service (June 13, 2011), to improve customer service delivery, advance customer service through innovative technology, solicit timely customer feedback, and improve online services.
OMB Memorandum M-12-18, Managing Government Records Directive (August 24, 2012), requires electronic recordkeeping to ensure transparency, efficiency and accountability, and demonstrate compliance with Federal records management statutes and regulations.
OMB Memorandum M-12-18, Managing Government Records Directive (August 24, 2012), requires electronic recordkeeping to ensure transparency, efficiency and accountability, and demonstrate compliance with Federal records management statutes and regulations.
OMB Memorandum M-13-13, Open Data Policy-Managing Information as an Asset (May 9, 2013), requires Departments/Agencies to manage information as an asset throughout its life cycle to promote openness and interoperability and properly safeguard systems and information.
OMB Memorandum M-14-06, Guidance for Providing and Using Administrative Data for Statistical Purposes (February 14, 2014), requires a review of existing administrative data for potential statistical use with focus on improving how agencies leverage existing Federal data to facilitate their own programmatic work and better serve the American public.
OMB Memorandum M-14-12, Management Agenda Priorities for the FY 2016 Budget (July 18, 2014), provides additional guidance and information requests on select Management Agenda CAP goals. Includes requirements for agencies to highlight at Open Data and Smarter IT Delivery.
OMB Memorandum M-15-04, Strengthening Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance (December 23, 2014),provides guidance to support agencies' efforts to strengthen an organizational culture of employee engagement and mission performance in accordance with priorities established in the President's Management Agenda (PMA) Cross Agency Priority (CAP) goal on People and Culture.
OMB Memorandum M-15-09, Guidance on Implementing the Federal Customer Service Awards Program (March 19, 2015), ensures Federal agency managers work to identify and support improvements in the services provided to citizens and other customers, the Administration is creating the Federal Customer Service Awards Program.
OMB Memorandum M-15-12, Increasing Transparency of Federal Spending by Making Federal Spending Data Accessible, Searchable, and Reliable (May 8, 2015), provides guidance to Federal agencies on cunent reporting requirements pursuant to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFA TA) as well as new requirements that agencies must employ pursuant to the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act).
OMB Memorandum M-15-13, Policy to Require Secure Connections across Federal Websites and Web Services (June 8, 2015), requires that all publicly accessible Federal websites and web services1 only provide service through a secure connection. The strongest privacy and integrity protection currently available for public web connections is Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS).
OMB Memorandum M-16-03,Guidance on Federal Information Security and Privacy Management Requirements (October 30, 2015), establishes current Administration information security priorities and provides agencies with Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) and Privacy Management reporting guidance and deadlines, as required by the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014.
OMB Memorandum M-16-16, 2016 Agency Open Government Plans (July 14, 2016), provides guidance and supplemental best practices and information to assist agencies in updating their Open Government Plans.
OMB Memorandum M-16-21, Federal Source Code Policy: Achieving Efficiency, Transparency, and Innovation through Reusable and Open Source Software (August 8, 2016), requires new custom-developed source code developed specifically by or for the federal government to be made available for sharing and re-use across all agencies. It also includes a pilot program that will require agencies to release at least a portion of new custom-developed source code to the public.

Commerce Open Government Policy

Department Organization Order (DOO) 10-5, Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration (CFO/ASA), assigns the responsibility to implement the principles of transparency and open government as set forth in the Presidential memorandum of January 21, 2010 and OMB memorandum number M-10-06, "Open Government Directive," as a mission of the CFO/ASA. It provides that the Chief Privacy Officer and Director of Open Government shall oversee Department-wide implementation of the principles of transparency and open government.
Department Organization Order (DOO) 20-31, Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) and Director of Open Government, prescribes the functions and organization of the Office of Privacy and Open Government.
Open Government Handbook, identifies the roles and responsibilities of open government team members and the integration of open government efforts and initiatives. It also outlines the integration of repeatable processes for the publishing of the Open Government Plan (the Plan), updates to the Department’s Open Government website, and integration of Commerce Bureau/Operating Units (BOU) open government efforts to develop standardized processes and best practices..

Questions and Comments

Send Questions or Comments on the Commerce Open Government program to Open@doc.gov.

Office of Privacy and Open Government
Office of the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce

Page last updated:August 15, 2016