Agencies Release Open Government Plans

Federal agencies released their open government plans, detailing how they will carry out President Barack Obama's initiative to make the government more transparent, engaging with the public and collaborative.

"These are concrete steps to make agency operations and data more transparent while building new ways for citizens to actively influence the priorities and policies of their government," Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orzag said. He outlined three major steps OMB is taking to implement the open government directive. They include a clarification on the use of social media in how it relates to the Paperwork Reduction Act. Orzag said agencies will be allowed to hold public meetings over the Internet without violating the act. He also noted that using technology tools such as "wikis, ratings, rankings, and online requests" to obtain public feedback does not violate the PRA. In addition, he said the OMB has taken steps to improve the transparency of the rulemaking process and has established timelines for complying with a law, authored by Obama when he served in the Senate, that requires government to provide user-friendly information about government spending.

Among the steps the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is taking to be more open, transparent and responsive is the implementation of a dashboard to track the government's basic research and development investments across the Executive Branch.

OMB Watch Executive Director Gary Bass said the Administration actions will likely have a lasting and positive impact on government transparency. The "actions are only one small policy step, but one huge leap for government openness."