(Note: this post has been updated since it was first published—see below) It’s Sunshine Week again, and in that spirit... View Article
Continue readingPOIA aims to make public records truly public
According to a procurement officer in the Transportation Department, SF-LLLs, a disclosure form filed by lobbyists when they help their clients pursue contract or grant awards, are filed away with other contracting documents and "kept in a secure place so no one has access to the them." This, despite the fact that, in fine print on the lower left hand side of the document are the words, "This information will be available for public inspection."
All over Washington, paper and electronic records of documents labeled "public disclosure" or "available for public inspection" and the like are inaccessible to the vast ...
Introducing POIA
Today Representative Steve Israel introduced the Public Online Information Act calling for government to:
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Create an expert committee for all three branches of government to steer government towards making datasets publicly available in meaningful ways.
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Direct the executive branch to consider guidelines issued by that committee and for the CIOs of various agencies to do the same thing, and
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Place online all publicly available government documents and data held by the executive branch. This includes everything they've got, with a few potential exceptions: classified information, personnel rules, trade secrets, "priviliged inter/intra agency memos", information affecting an individuals privacy, law enforcement records, records of financial institutions, and most importantly, geographical information concerning wells. Those are the same exceptions as in FOIA.
Making Public Information Available Online: Rep. Israel Introduces the Public Online Information Act
Today, Representative Steve Israel introduced the Public Online Information Act, which if enacted would free a vast treasure trove of... View Article
Continue readingTransparency Is Trending
This week is Sunshine Week, a lot of people are very excited and are taking the time to write about... View Article
Continue readingC-SPAN Posts Full Archives
Serious geek-out moment. C-SPAN has posted their full archives online in embeddable format. I could waste a few days watching... View Article
Continue readingRead the Bill Becoming the Norm
Check out this line from Jay Newton-Small’s Swampland blog post on the way forward for health care reform in the... View Article
Continue readingEarmark Transparency Makes More Sense Than a Ban
The recent policies imposed by the House Appropriations Committee and the House Republican Caucus to ban for-profit earmarks and all... View Article
Continue readingPublic Blocked From Key Parts of U.S. Dam Inspection Data
In the middle of the night on Nov. 6, 1977, the Kelly Barnes Dam near Toccoa Falls, Georgia, gave way, unleashing a wall of water that killed 39 people. In a report, federal investigators blamed the failure on a combination of factors, including heavy rains and a breach in the 38-year-old earthen dam’s crest that had been followed by progressive erosion.
The disaster prompted President Jimmy Carter to direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin inspecting the nation’s “non-federal high-hazard dams,” according to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. The findings of this inspection ...
Continue readingBudget and Deficit Transparency
Earlier this week, the Senate passed an amendment to the unemployment extenders bill that would require the Secretary of the... View Article
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