Topic:
Transparency
Latest Headlines
Latest Headlines
Spotlight: Obama signs STOCK Act change into law
Thousands of federal employees won't have their financial disclosure forms publicized online after all. President Obama signed into law April 15 modifications to the Stop Trading on Congressional...
Cass Sunstein on what law professors don't get about government
Among law professors, "it's long been thought that the process of notice and comment is basically kabuki theater," said Cass Sunstein, himself a law professor for decades before heading up OIRA and who has since returned to academia. "That administrative-law sophisticated wisdom, it couldn't be further from the truth," he said at a Brookings Institution event.
Rate of unredacted FOIA responses fell to record low in 2012
In 2012, agencies processed more than half a million FOIA requests, but they only released information with no redactions in 41 percent of requests, according to the report, released March 13. It drew on data from 25 major federal agencies, including most cabinet-level departments.
OGIS to focus on FOIA fees, immigration records, says Nisbet
Freedom of Information Act fees and fee waivers are a persistent problem for agency FOIA offices and for requesters, according to Miriam Nisbet, director of the Office of Government Information Services at the National Archives and Records Administration. Immigration records will be another area of attention for OGIS going forward, said Nisbet.
OMB outlines 'Freeze the Footprint' policy
The Office of Management and Budget issued guidance last week clarifying how agencies can comply with a new rule prohibiting office and warehouse expansions--known as "Freeze the Footprint."
OSHA ranks worst in guaranteeing scientific freedom of expression
Government scientists have gained more whistleblower protection and freedom to express personal opinions under the Obama administration, but most agencies still do not give scientists access to drafts and final revisions in which their work played a part, a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found .
Obama administration transparency efforts a mixed bag, says watchdog
"Ultimately, the administration will be judged on the transparency it delivered, not the transparency it envisioned or promised--and there is widespread agreement that the delivery has lagged," write report authors from the Center for Effective Government.
Watchdog calls White House meeting records suspicious
The records of interactions between the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and special-interest groups are suspiciously sparse, the Center for Effective Government said Feb. 26. The advocacy group analyzed OIRA records for three agencies and found what it said is an implausibly small number of written comments and records of phone conversations.
More than six thousand U.S. dead in Iraq and Afghanistan
Statistics compiled by the Congressional Research Service show that 6,640 American service members died as a result of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2011.The number of American service members diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury has continued to trend upward, albeit at a slower rate.
White House puts the brakes on runaway petition site
The White House has raised the signature threshold petitions on its We the People website must reach to receive an official administration response after the administration was inundated with both serious and inflammatory petitions that reached a previous threshold.
