OGP FOIA

This group aims to work with the government on the accomplishment of the specific OGP NAP commitments outlined below – and to urge them to reach beyond the text of the Plan to fully implement the goals and make government more fully open.

In Sept 2011, The US Government released its Open Government Partnership (OGP)  National Action Plan (NAP) with 26 commitments to be accomplished by Sept 2012. (read the full plan here).

Additionally, we will evaluate their level of success in 1) implementing their commitments, and 2) accomplishing an ideal implementation of their stated goals. The CSO Recommendations given to the Administration in December 2011 will provide a starting place for this evaluation (also available here).

This is a project of OpenTheGovernment.org. If you're interested in actively helping, contact Wayne.

Open Government to Increase Public Integrity

3 Continue to Improve Freedom of Information Act Administration

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) guarantees public access to executive branch agency records that are not exempted from disclosure. The Administration’s reforms to date have increased transparency, reduced backlogs, and encouraged disclosure of government information before a FOIA request is made. To improve the administration of FOIA, the U.S. will:

• Professionalize FOIA Administration.We will continue work on a new civil service personnel category (or job series) for officials who specialize in administering FOIA and other information programs. It is important to recognize the professional nature of the work done by those administering FOIA.

• Harness the Power of Technology. We will expand our use of technology to achieve greater efficiencies in FOIA administration, including utilization of technology to assist in searching for and processing records. Moreover, as agencies increasingly post information on their websites, we will work to ensure that the information is searchable and readily usable by the public.