GovTrack 2.0
Josh Tauberer has announced changes to his wonderful GovTrack website and service.
- We’ve made a few "tweaks" to GovTrack, by Josh Tauberer, GovTrack blog, (March 19, 2012). ...there are some things missing from GovTrack 2.0 that were in the old site, and if you need them you can still find them for now at http://legacy.govtrack.us, which continues to run the old site. I apologize for discontinuing some features, such as information on amendments, but with the site’s tiny budget I’m just not able to keep everything running at once...
- GovTrack. GovTrack helps you find the status of U.S. federal legislation, voting records for the Senate and House of Representatives, information on Members of Congress, and congressional district maps. Much of the information shown on GovTrack is assembled in an automated way from official government websites. primarily the website THOMAS which is the official website for the status of legislation run by the Library of Congress.
Death of a Dictionary?
Slightly off topic: the editor and editorial office of Webster's New World Dictionary "seems to have vanished."
- Death of a Dictionary? Or an Abduction?, By Allan Metcalf, Lingua Franca blog, The Chronicle of Higher Education, (March 21, 2012).
Social Security Administration curtails mailing annual statements
Even in the age of so-called e-government, there are few instances when government information is truly personalized and even fewer when the government takes the initiative to make sure that information reaches individuals. In most cases, one has to know information might exist and go hunting for it. One notable exception to this is the annual statements that the Social Security Administration mails to Americans saying how much their monthly Social Security check will be when they retire. But now, according to a statement on its website, SSA will be sending Social Security Statements only to workers age 60 and older. As Michael Hiltzik points out, this will mean less information to Americans and that will, in turn, benefit "unscrupulous investment brokers, annuities hawkers and their friends in Congress as they tried to peddle retirement deals." They love to tell us that we can't count on Social Security and the annual mailings have, for more than a decade, served as "a powerful rebuttal" to that mantra for some 150 million Americans once a year.
- Information Regarding the Social Security Statement, Social Security Administration (03/13/2012).
- An antisocial move by the Social Security Administration, By Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times (March 20, 2012).
Sunshine Week Round-Up
The National Security Archive has a roundup of stories from this year's Sunshine Week:
- Sunshine Week Round-Up, by Lauren Harper, Unredacted The National Security Archive blog (March 15, 2012). Sunshine Week, the annual celebration of the importance of open government and freedom of information, is in full swing. Every year, the news media, nonprofits, libraries, schools, and the government debate the public’s right to know.
OMB Watch Report on Transparency and Accountability Websites
On March 19, OMB Watch released a new report that evaluates state and federal websites designed to ensure the accountability of public officials. The report, Upholding the Public's Trust: Key Features for Effective State Accountability Websites, examines state efforts to release public officials' integrity information online. Such transparency is crucial to guard against self-dealing and patronage. While states and the federal government have made progress in this area, more work lies ahead. This report considers four key areas of transparency in the U.S. state and federal governments: campaign finance, lobbying, procurement, and public officials’ assets. The report describes the key features needed for effective online disclosure in these areas and highlights leading practices in the states.
- annoucnement, OMB Watch (March 19, 2012).
- Upholding the Public's Trust: Key Features for Effective State Accountability Websites, by Sean Moulton, Gavin Baker, and Charles N. O’Neill, OMB Watch, (March 2012). [pdf]