President Obama's Road Map Leads to Promised Open Government Reforms

Statement of Danielle Brian, Executive Director, Project On Government Oversight:

We are enthusiastic about the scope of the commitments in the U.S. National Action Plan for the Open Government Partnership. From protecting federal whistleblowers; improving releases under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); committing to declassifying information that should be public; increasing transparency in federal spending, in revenue collection for natural resources on public lands, and in international financial systems; committing to modernizing federal records so that agency emails will begin to be preserved, the President's plan includes a great number of the Project On Government Oversight’s (POGO) recommendations.

Now our challenge is to help ensure these commitments become a reality over the next year. We hope to see measurable progress toward each of these goals, and believe the best way to achieve this is through the establishment of a Presidential Advisory Committee on Open Government to allow the public and experts outside government to participate.

We have no illusions that all the reforms we seek will be achieved in one plan or one administration, but the President’s roadmap—if properly followed—will go a long way to fulfilling his promise for “unprecedented level of openness in government.”