National Security Archive submits
recommendations for President Obama’s Open Government Directive
White House launches public participation and
collaboration effort to develop transparency policies
Public opportunity to submit, comment on, and
vote for open government ideas closes May 28
For more information contact:
Meredith Fuchs / Kristin Adair
202/994-7000
Washington, DC, May 26, 2009 –
Today the National Security Archive submitted recommendations to
the White House’s Open
Government Initiative on the
Open Government Dialogue
website run by the National Academy of Public Administrators.
This site was launched on May 21, 2009, as part of a three-phase
public participation process that was announced last week in a
federal
register notice. The Archive’s recommendations call for
dedicated leadership and enforcement of transparency policies,
fulfillment of the core purposes of the Freedom of Information
Act, and bringing government records management into the modern
era.
“The White House is starting a process that could lead to a
wave of change across government,” said Meredith Fuchs, the
Archive’s general counsel. “If the Administration is serious
about ushering in a new era of transparency and collaboration with
the public, then there must be a commitment to long-term
leadership and enforcement of open government policies. We need a
chief transparency advocate to make it happen.”
The Open Government
Initiative is a result of
President Obama’s January 21, 2009 open government memorandum,
calling for recommendations by May 21, 2009, that would usher in
an unprecedented level of openness in government. In the
memorandum, the President outlined three principles for promoting
a transparent and open government: transparency, participation,
and collaboration.
The Archive’s recommendations were submitted today as part of
phase one of the Open Government Initiative, the brainstorming
phase, which is dedicated to the submission of public
recommendations to improve government transparency. It will be
completed on May 28. Phase two begins on June 3 and concerns
discussion of the ideas generated during the first phase.
Finally, phase three, which begins June 15, is a collaborative
rule drafting process.
On the Brainstorming
site, members of the public may submit, comment on, and vote
for open government ideas in three categories: transparency,
participation, and collaboration. This phase of the process will
close on May 28, 2009. Today, the Archive posted the following
specific recommendations on the new
Open Government Dialogue
site:
In addition, the Archive participated in the 20th Century Right
to Know Initiative and in OpenTheGovernment.org’s processes for
generating open government recommendations and supports the
recommendations posted by those groups to the Brainstorming site.
These include many recommendations to improve the national
security classification system and records management across the
government. We urge interested parties to review the
recommendations and provide their comments before the Open
Government Dialogue site closes on May 28, 2009.
