White House on Open Gov: Not There Yet, But Getting Closer

The White House on Friday released a status report on the Obama administration's open government initiative, claiming credit for a number of advances but acknowledging that more needs to be done to make federal operations more transparent.

"Some critics have alleged that the administration has not done enough to create a more open government, and that much work remains," the document states. "They are right; notwithstanding the measurable and undeniable progress made on all the administration's major initiatives, still more work is necessary."

The bulk of the report, however, centers on documenting progress. The open government effort, it says, has proceeded on several fronts:

• On his first day in office, President Obama issued an order instructing agencies to release more information under the Freedom of Information Act. In fiscal 2010, agencies made full disclosures for nearly 56 percent of FOIA requests, a 6 percent increase over the previous year.
• By the end of 2010, agencies had developed comprehensive open government plans, as required by a 2009 administration directive.
• Agencies have made more than 389,000 data sets available via the Data.gov platform.
• The administration has boosted spending transparency through reporting efforts on Recovery.gov, USASpending.gov and IT.usaspending.gov.
• The National Archives and Records Admnistration has taken steps to implement Executive Order 13526, which requires stricter standards for classifying information. Agencies reduced personnel authorized to classify documents by 7 percent in 2010.
• The White House has made the president's and vice president's daily schedules available on its website.

The rest of 2011 and 2012, the report says, will see "continued progress" by agencies on open gov initiatives.