This Wednesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee will markup legislation that appropriates funding for the electronic government fund. The e-gov fund supports many of the Obama administration's flagship transparency initiatives, including data.gov, the IT spending dashboard, and USASpending.gov, as well as initiatives like data center consolidation. The House Appropriations Committee voted in June to reduce e-gov funding from $34m to $13-16m and to restructure it by rolling it into a broader "Information and Engagement for Citizens" fund.

The House's initially-proposed draconian cuts to the e-gov fund caused significant controversy, prompting Sunlight's #savethedata campaign, a public letter from major organizations and notable individuals, letters from Senator Tom Carper and former federal CIO Vivek Kundra, and statements from Rep. Darrell Issa,  Rep. Jose Serrano, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman.

It is unclear at this time whether the Senate will go along with the House's proposed restructuring of the fund as well as the disproportionate reduction in its funding levels. If the cuts go forward, new federal CIO Steven Van Roekel will make to make difficult decisions about which programs to cut or kill. We'll keep you posted.

Federal CIO Vivek Kundra identified ten principles for improving federal transparency in his testimony before a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee today. They're worth repeating here:

1. Build end-to-end digital processes – Automate transfer of data between systems to increase productivity, protect data integrity, and speed data dissemination. Capitalize on game-changing technologies to increase transparency.
2. Build once, use often – Architect systems for reuse and share platforms to reduce costs, streamline systems and processes, reduce errors, and foster collaboration.
3. Tap into golden sources of data – Pull data directly from authoritative sources to improve data quality, shorten processes and protect data integrity.
4. Release machine-readable data and encourage 3rd party applications – Make data machine-readable to allow the public to easily analyze, visualize and use government information.
5. Use common data standards – Develop and use uniform, unique identifiers and data standards to ease the flow of data and reduce system complexity.
6. Validate data up front – Correct errors during collection and at the point of entry to block bad data from ever entering the system.
7. Release data in real time and preserve for future use – Release data as quickly as feasible to enhance its relevance and utility while maintaining future accessibility.
8. Reduce burden – Collect data once and use it repeatedly. Pull from existing data sets to reduce costs and burden and to increase productivity and uniformity.
9. Protect privacy and security – Safeguard the release of information to increase public trust, participation, preserve privacy, and protect national security. Open Government doesn’t mean vulnerable government.
10. Provide equal access and incorporate user feedback – Provide a common view of data to all stakeholders to foster collaboration. Incorporate user feedback to help identify high-value, meaningful data sets, set priorities, to continuously drive and improve future planning and processes.

Today at 4pm, the White House will host an online chat on how to improve the online experience with Federal websites. Although the event is being framed as a way to cut wasteful websites, it presents an opportunity to give useful feedback on what the government should be doing better online. The right people will be on the other end of the line: White House Director of Digital Strategy Macon Phillips, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, and Director of the GSA’s Center for Excellence in Digital Government Sheila Campbell.

There are some questions that we'd like answered:

• Why isn't more government data being published online automatically?
• Why aren't there more APIs?
• Why isn't more data available in bulk?
• What's being done to improve the quality of information published online, particularly with datasets?
• Why do so many government websites look like they were designed in the mid-90s, and what's being done to improve the user experience?
• What's next for the Open Government Directive?
• Where's all that lobbying and ethics information the president promised would be online?
• If this effort is about cutting websites, what's being done to make sure that public information isn't taken offline?

You can ask your questions by filling out a form on WhiteHouse.gov, tweeting with the #dotgov hashtag, or going to the WH facebook page.

You can watch the chat at WhiteHouse.gov or using the WH facebook app at 4pm.

Update: Video from the chat is now available here.

Today, the White House announced that Vivek Kundra, the country's first federal Chief Information Officer, is leaving later this summer to serve as a joint fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. We're sad to see him go and urge President Obama to choose a successor who will carry out Vivek's vision of using the Internet to create a more transparent government.

Perhaps Vivek's biggest accomplishment was to strengthen OMB's role as a publisher of government data. While OMB is still largely unwilling to force agencies to share more information, Vivek built Data.gov and the IT Dashboard as tools to aggressively pursue transparency that affects how the government works.

Unfortunately, most of the work he started is also at risk of ending abruptly. With the electronic government fund being cut, and Congress hesitant to codify important transparency requirements, we risk seeing Vivek's successes become temporary gains. That's why we're hoping the White House chooses a successor for his position who shares his belief that technology can be used to change government for the better, by making it more transparent and accountable.

This Thursday will be a important test of the House of Representative's commitment to fund key transparency programs like USASpending.gov, Data.gov, the IT Dashboard. That morning, a very influential subcommittee will debate and vote upon how much money should be made available to the Electronic Government Fund, which pays for these programs and others. In anticipation of the vote, the Sunlight Foundation and many other organizations and notable individuals are releasing a letter today that calls for the restoration of full funding to these transparency programs.

Although the e-gov fund was appropriated $34m in FY 2009 and 2010, it was cut to $8m after months of wrangling over the FY 2011 budget. Federal CIO Vivek Kundra has explained that at that funding level, "no project will go unaffected." It will likely mean the end of improvements to websites like USASpending.gov and Data.gov, worsening data quality, the release of fewer datasets, and the end of several programs.

A number of prominent members of Congress, including Reps. Darrell Issa and Jose Serrano and Sens. Joe Lieberman and Tom Carper, have spoken out in favor of the programs made possible by the e-gov fund. This year's dramatically diminished funding level has precipitously weakened these programs; if it continues, they will slip into a coma.

We will keep an eye on the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government hearing scheduled for this Thursday and let you know what happens. In the meantime, our joint letter is below.

House E-Gov Fund Sign-On letter

On June 6th and 7th, many of the thought leaders from the open government community attended Personal Democracy Forum 2011 at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Out of this group of big thinkers came a number of wonderful presentations, if you scroll over the image below you can see most of them from PDF '11 (apologies to those left out, there weren't videos for everyone).

Calling the cuts to the e-gov fund potentially "penny-wise and pound-foolish," Delaware Senator Tom Carper wrote yesterday to federal CIO Vivek Kundra about the effects of the cuts and how the administration intends to cope.

I remain concerned with how the new lower funding level for the E-Gov Fund might not only impede the progress made thus far to make government open and transparent, but also harm efforts to cut wasteful and duplicative spending in the federal government.

He asked Mr. Kundra provide two key pieces of information:

I hope you can provide greater information about what specific efforts paid for by the E-Gov Fund will be affected by these cuts. In addition, I hope that you can provide information about how your office intends to maximize the funding available or use other available agency funding to pay for some of these initiatives and how our subcommittee can help.

The letter follows-up on Senator Carper's question at a recent hearing about the effects of the cuts. The Senator's continued involvement on this crucial issue provides hope to supporters of government openness and transparency. Sen. Carper is the chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee responsible for overseeing federal financial management, government information, federal services, and international security.

Letter From Senator Carper to Vivek Kundra about the E-Gov Fund

In the last few weeks there’s been a whirlwind of news and speculation about what will happen to the federal government’s online transparency efforts. From the first rumble of budget trouble to a frantic search for information on when the sites would go dark, and an extended legislative give-and-take over funding levels, the storm has cleared enough to know what’s left standing.

Although the future of online transparency is uncertain, what we can know for sure is that our collective efforts averted a disaster. A few programs will survive, with the immediate fate of online transparency in the hands of federal CIO Vivek Kundra and a few key legislators.

Congress and the President collectively cut the Electronic Government Fund from $34m in FY2010 to $8m in FY2011. For much of this past year, the e-gov fund kept the lights on with the fumes from last year’s funding combined with a little under $2m from this year’s funding and some fancy financial footwork. Don’t be misled by these (relatively) small numbers: all agencies dramatically reduced their expenditures and held off on new projects while Congress worked out a budget, so the amount already spent represents starvation levels. The famine may continue. Even though Congress is supposed to pass a new budget for 2012 by October 1, which would make new monies available, it’s highly doubtful that this will take place on time. The $6m-or-so may have to last a long time.

There is a glimmer of hope, however. Because of our collective effort to #savethedata -- with nearly 10,000 signatures to our letter to Congress -- instead of these transparency programs going dark (except a very basic version of USASpending.gov) as would have happened at the originally-proposed $2m level, more programs will survive. In addition, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Issa has made a personal pledge to use his reprogramming authority (i.e., the ability to shift funds around) to try and keep many sites alive; congressional leaders such as Sen. Lieberman and Rep. Serrano also have stressed the importance of these programs.

Even so, Vivek Kundra, the federal CIO and e-gov administrator, will now have to make some very difficult decisions about which programs to kill or curtail. Two programs, USASpending.gov and Performance.gov, were created by federal law and will likely have some kind of funding priority.

It’s going to be very hard to squeeze $34m work of programs into less than $8m worth of funding of which 1/4 is already spent. From what I’ve heard, keeping many of these programs supported at basic levels (including maintenance) would cost around $15-20m.

In order to keep these programs going, there are 3 strategies that may be employed. First, Mr. Kundra and OMB will “pass the hat,” which means that they will ask other agencies to help support some of these programs. Given the funding cuts that most agencies have sustained, this will be a difficult ask. Second, other agencies may be asked to take charge of (and funding responsibility for) programs close to their missions. Third, money will be shifted around in an attempt to keep priority programs alive until (hopefully) more money can be found in next year's budget. In light of the visions recently offered by both President Obama and House Republicans, we must ensure that transparency is more than a bipartisan talking point.

If we continue to keep up the pressure, and if transparency leaders continue to emerge from both sides of the aisle, we have a fighting chance to truly open up the government to the American people. The last few weeks show that success is possible.

For more information on the programs at stake, here’s the six major areas covered by the e-gov fund and the amount of money intended to support a year of operations for each category. Please note that this is a partial program list, and the numbers may be a bit off, but it's drawn from the best information available to me.

1. Improving Innovation, Efficiency and Effectiveness, and Federal IT ($10m)

• Cloud Computing -- supports government efforts to move to the cloud by addressing security, standards, and other issues
• Apps.gov (part of cloud computing) -- helps the government use cloud computing and social media by negotiating gov’t friendly contracts and creating an agency-facing storefront
• FedRamp (part of cloud computing) -- a unified government-wide risk management program that supports agency security services while reducing security burdens upon each individual agency
• Data center consolidation
• Mobile apps -- see http://apps.usa.gov/
• Data.gov innovations platform

2. Citizens Engagement Platform (CEP) Access / Web 2.0 ($5m)

• Apps.gov/now -- builds free agency-friendly engagement tools such as blogs, wikis, etc.
• Citizen Services Delivery Dashboard (not yet public) -- will track agency performance against customer service standards
• Challenge.gov -- puts all innovation prizes and challenges in one place

3. Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Implementation ($9.5m)

• USASpending.gov -- publishes federal spending on contracts and grants
• Sub-award recipient reporting (part of USASpending.gov) -- shows the sub-recipients for contracts and grants
• IT Dashboard -- reports on $80b in federal government IT funding and tracks performance
• Performance.gov (not yet public) -- tracks how agencies are performing against key metrics

4. Efficient Federal Workforce ($5m)

• Fedspace.gov -- a secure Intranet and collaboration workspace for federal employees across agencies

5. Accessible and Transparent Government Information / Data.gov ($3m)

• Data.gov -- helps the public access to high-value, machine readable databases

6. E-Gov Project Management Best Practices ($1.5m)

• 25 Point Plan to Reform Federal IT -- http://1.usa.gov/ezeKT8
• PaymentAccuracy.gov -- tracks the accuracy of payments made by the U.S. government & identifies high-error programs

As of this morning, more than 3,000 citizens have signed an open letter to Congress to save online transparency programs from a drastic budget cut; this is an increase of nearly 1,000 people in the last two days. Our message is catching on and Congress is starting to pay attention.

For example, Federal News Radio’s latest in a series of excellent reports shows that we have the attention of some of the House’s senior appropriators.

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, referring to the House Republicans’ decision to propose a partial restoration of the E-Gov fund as part of a short term continuing resolution, was reported as saying:

I think there is an awful lot that is going to happen between now and when we finally get the government funded for the rest of this year and next year, but certainly there is a recognition that money was needed.

Rep. Jose Serrano, the ranking member of the same subcommittee, reportedly said last week:

The detrimental effect of HR 1 on so many areas of government is clear—and perhaps no more so than on the efforts to ensure the government's IT infrastructure upgrades are proceeding on schedule and on budget....We cannot have a more streamlined, efficient and open government without using the best technology available. Unfortunately the cuts in H.R. 1 to e-government fund will have the unintended consequence of making government less accountable and transparent.

Similarly, yesterday’s Federal News Radio report described GSA Administrator Martha Johnson as remarking that the “e-government fund is critical in keeping these open government tools helping citizens understand how the government works”.

We need to keep up the pressure. Follow the link to help save the data.

Public Letter: Save Online Transparency Programs (updated 4/2/2011)

Online transparency programs will enjoy a reprieve from the chopping block if the short term budget resolution posted late last night by House Republicans were to become law. The latest proposal appears to continue funding the sites at the same level at half the level as last year instead of cutting them to virtually nothing as was originally proposed. In short: our response is working. But we're not out the woods yet.

Under the short term resolution, the Electronic Government Fund, which pays for USASpending.gov, Data.gov, the IT Dashboard, and other tech transparency programs, would be funded at $17m for the remainder of the time the continuing resolution is in effect, i.e., until April 15 the year, which is the equivalent of the $34m annual appropriation it received last year. (I am reading the budget resolution quickly, so I believe the money is for the remainder of the year. But these things are tricky.) The Sunlight Foundation, joined by a coalition of organization and more than 2,000 citizens, have called for these transparency programs to be saved.

This short term continuing resolution would keep the government’s lights on through April 15 and fund the Department of Defense to the end of the year, but contains a number of provisions that many political leaders will be reluctant or unwilling to accept.

If today’s negotiations between House Republicans, Senate leaders, and the President reach an agreement, we will see a second bill introduced in the House before midnight tonight that would fund the government through the end of the year. (Three days must elapse between when a bill is made publicly available and when the House can vote on it under the 72-hour-rule, and the government is scheduled to shut down at midnight on Friday.) We’ll have to keep a close look to see if that long-term agreement would also restore funding to Electronic Government Fund programs.

If today’s negotiations over a long-term solution do not reach an agreement today, the short term resolution still faces political obstacles in the Senate and a possible veto by the president. As part of the negotiations over its provisions, we could see the resolution modified by the Senate and sent back to the House; a failure of both houses to agree would lead to a government shutdown.

All that is clear is that your speaking out is making a difference. Please keep calling and emailing and blogging and writing. Together we can save the data.

• Updated: On the question of whether the E-gov fund was reinstated, as I suspected above, I was reading the legislative language too quickly. The short term continuing resolution would make a pro-rated $17m available to the E-Gov fund for the week between April 8 and 15th -- i.e. around  $886 thousand -- and then would expire. How much money will be available for the remainder of the year, even if the CR passes, is very much open. It's also worth noting that the short term CR would fund the E-Gov at half the level of last year.