Memo on Obama Administration Efforts on Opening Government

To: Editorial Boards and Interested Parties
Fr: The Obama Administration
Re: Unprecedented efforts to open up American government
Da: Wednesday, December 9, 2009

For too long, the American people have experienced a culture of secrecy in Washington, where information is locked up, taxpayer dollars disappear without a trace, and lobbyists wield undue influence. For Americans, business as usual in Washington has reinforced the belief that the government benefits the special interests and the well connected at the expense of the American people.

But President Obama committed to change the way Washington works. And starting with signing the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government as his first executive action, he has begun to do just that.

The Obama Administration is opening government up to its citizens and putting accountability first. We are reducing the influence of special interests by writing new ethics rules that prevent lobbyists from coming to work in government or sitting on its advisory boards. And we are tracking how government uses taxpayer dollars with easy-to-understand websites like recovery.gov, USASpending.gov, and IT.usaspending.gov.

But the Administration’s most expansive step toward a more accountable government is the Open Government Directive called for by the President on his first full day in office and released Tuesday by the Office of Management and Budget.

Open government is not the work of any single office. The entire Obama Administration is moving forward with broad measures to translate the values of openness into lasting improvements in the way government makes decisions, solves problems, and addresses national challenges.

The Open Government Directive sets an unprecedented standard for government agencies, insisting that they achieve key milestones in transparency, collaboration, and participation.

In addition to the Open Government Directive, the Administration on Tuesday released an open government progress report – an analysis of the steps already taken to increase transparency and a look at the actions on the horizon. Some highlights include:

· The White House, for the first time ever, recently began publishing the names of everyone who visits the White House. This gives the public a unique look at whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process. We have also provided on-line access to White House staff financial reports and salaries, adopted a tough new state secrets policy, reversed an executive order that previously limited access to presidential records, and webcast White House meetings and conferences.

· The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is launching Virtual USA, an innovative information-sharing initiative—developed in collaboration with the emergency response community and state and local governments across the nation—that helps federal, state, local and tribal first responders communicate to make fast, well-informed decisions during emergencies .

· The Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Commerce, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are working together to spur innovation by making it easier for entrepreneurs to access information on publicly-funded technologies that are available for license; opportunities for federal funding and partnerships; and potential private-sector partners. By making information from multiple agencies available in RSS and XML feeds in a single location, government can help entrepreneurs identify and assess promising business opportunities, which can create new jobs and strengthen economic growth.

· The Department of Agriculture’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services (FNCS) is releasing nutrition data for 1,000 of the most common food items and launching the Innovations for Healthy Kids Challenge, a national contest for software developers to leverage the USDA data to develop creative educational games that promote healthier dietary habits among children.

· The Department of Justice is setting a transparency precedent for the rest of government by releasing in a machine-readable format the Department of Justice’s Fiscal Year 2008 Annual Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Report as well as a sampling of nineteen such Reports from other federal agencies.

· For the first time, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the Department of Labor is systematically publishing employer-specific information about occupational fatalities online, and making these data available for easy download. In addition, the Employment and Training Administration is advancing the values of openness and collaboration through the recently launched Tools for America’s Job Seekers Challenge. The Challenge enlists entrepreneurs, tech firms, workforce professionals, and the public to help identify the best online tools to enable America’s job seekers quickly and easily connect with jobs.

· The Department of the Treasury announced an open government effort that will increase public access to data and information. Under this initiative, Treasury has compiled and will now make available new data on tax returns, more user friendly information on transactions under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and a new report on bank trading and derivatives.

· For the second consecutive year, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) has released a “hospital report card” to provide the public with a transparent accounting of the quality and safety of its care. In addition, to empower economists, policy wonks, watch dog groups and the public at large to analyze and visualize the data in new ways, the VA is making the raw data from the 2008 and 2009 report cards available for download on Data.gov.

· The Department of Housing and Urban Development will publish online a full historical view of detailed information on the physical condition of public housing units across the U.S. and will offer citizens the opportunity to contribute to HUD’s long-term strategic plan through a new interactive “suggestion box.”

· The Department of Energy is launching Open Energy Information (www.openEI.org) - a new open-source web platform that will make DOE resources and open energy data widely available to the public.

· Across the country and online, the Department of Education has sought the best ideas for the next generation of school reform through the Secretary’s “Listening and Learning” tour. The department has also taken several steps to improve the public’s access to important government data – including publishing data about federal financial assistance provided to students and families through loan, grant, and work-study programs, and providing unprecedented transparency to how states spent money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

· The State Department is releasing unprecedented new information about conflicts in Africa, making it possible to analyze sub-national and transnational areas of armed conflict, inter-communal strife, and political violence.

· The Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will expand public access to its frequently-updated information on airport delays through an Airport Status and Delays Web service registered on Data.gov.

· The Department of Health and Human Services highlighted two open government innovations featured in the White House Open Government Innovations Gallery. IdeaLab - a peer-to-peer network at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention- enables employees to use their insights and experiences to help colleagues build and implement high-impact solutions to important public health challenges. The You Tube Flu Prevention PSA Contest engaged the American public in reaching populations most vulnerable to the H1N1 virus –teens and young adults – through creative videos.

· The General Services Administration opened up 12 years of Federal Advisory Committee Data – making it available for download on Data.gov first the time so the public can easily review and analyze the work of these advisory committees.

· The Department of Commerce is announcing several new initiatives, including among others: Modernizing the NOAA Climate Data Base; simplifying access to current and past information on severe weather incidents; making the latest 5 years of the NTIS Bibliographic File searchable via Data.gov; and making Patent Maintenance Fee data available in machine-readable form for the first time.

· The Department of the Interior is launching two new resources for the American public. First, the Department will for the first time make key data about the nation’s hydropower resources available on a monthly basis, thereby providing stakeholders the timely information they need to develop informed strategies for an independent energy future. In addition, newly-released data on wildland fires will power more sophisticated strategies for prevention and mitigation.

· The Department of Defense is undertaking broad efforts to increase the transparency of the Department’s operations and information. Since Data.gov was launched in May 2009, the Department has published nearly 200 data sets. Today, the Department adds new data on the Federal Voting Assistance Program, which allows service members and others overseas to vote in federal elections. In addition, the White House Open Government Innovations Gallery highlights the Department’s use of collaboration to ensure the men and women who serve our nation have access to the best possible information when they need it. Using the same free software behind Wikipedia, the Army’s “Wikified Field Manual” invites military professionals to participate in writing Army Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures – instructions for soldiers on all aspects of Army life- collaboratively in real time.

· NASA is creating a number of Internet-based programs designed to make the agency more accessible and create a dialog with the American people about their space program, including working to establish an RSS feed to publicize technologies available for public licensing and undertaking an extensive effort to use the Internet and social media tools to engage the public on agency activities.


In addition to the commitments set forth in the Open Government Directive, numerous additional initiatives are underway. The Administration is:

· Experimenting with new techniques and tools to improve citizen engagement in the formulation and implementation of policy and in rulemaking.

· Expanding the offerings on Apps.gov, a platform that provides agencies with software tools with government-friendly terms of service so that every agency that wants a blog, a wiki, a challenge platform, or other citizen engagement tool can easily develop one.

· Designing, with public consultation, the Open Government Dashboard called for in the Directive and ensuring that the Dashboard offers concrete metrics for measuring progress toward a more accountable and open government.

· Expanding the Open Government “Innovations Gallery” at www.whitehouse.gov/open to showcase examples of open government in action. Through videos, short descriptions, and contact information, the Gallery facilitates best practices sharing.

· Establishing Fast Track Action Committees to make immediate and concrete progress on chronic problems impeding open government.

· Developing “communities of practice” to facilitate the sharing of ideas and software code across agencies and levels of government to realize open government in practice.

For more information on the Obama Administration’s unprecedented efforts to end business as usual in Washington and open up government to the American public, click HERE (PDF).