New CRS Report on FOIA
According to the Open CRS Network, the Congressional Research Service has published this helpful report on proposed changes to the Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): RL32780 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Amendments: 110th Congress February 01, 2007 The report reviews changes to FOIA that were proposed but not enacted in the 109th Congress in hopes of informing decision-making in the 110th. Aside from this legislative review, the report also contains this summary of what Federal FOIA is about and the perceived balancing issues:
The statute has become a somewhat popular tool of inquiry and information gathering for various quarters of American society -- the press, business, scholars, attorneys, consumers, and environmentalists, among others -- as well as some foreign interests. The response to a request may involve a few sheets of paper, several linear feet of records, or perhaps information in an electronic format. Such responses require staff time, search and duplication efforts, and other resource commitments. Agency information management professionals must efficiently and economically service FOIA requests, doing so, of late, in the sensitized homeland security milieu. Requesters must be satisfied through timely supply, brokerage, or explanation. Simultaneously, agency FOIA costs must be kept reasonable. The perception that these conditions are not operative can result in proposed new corrective amendments to the statute.Continue reading
Open House Project from Sunlight Foundation
The Sunlight Foundation has just issued a press release about its new Open House Project. The goal of the project is to explore ways that the workings of the U.S. House of Representatives can be made more transparent using the Internet. The most encouraging news: the project has the support of Speaker Pelosi. The initial list of participants includes high-profile names such as Markos Moulitsas-Zuniga of Daily Kos and my favorite masher of congressional info, Josh Tauberer of Govtrack.us. The group intends to make a report to Congress in March 2007. Continue reading
Victorian Government’s eGovernment Resource Centre
I am in a class about e-government this semester. In our second meeting, our professor showed us the excellent eGovernment Resource Centre. This website from the government of Victoria, Australia has compiled a large directory of e-government websites and news links. You can browse by topical groupings or just browse through an A to Z index. In addition, the site offers RSS feeds that provide such information as new resources for government web designers and site updates as they happen. I find the Daily Digest feed particularly useful, and I will occasionally link to stories I've found there, such as the one about ExpectMore.gov in my previous post.
Continue readingALA President Leslie Burger testified before the U.S. Senate
ALA President Leslie Burger testified before the U.S. Senate concerning recent closure of several libraries in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She urged the Environment and Public Works Committee halt all library closures.
Despite the fact that Congress hasn’t passed a FY 2007 budget, EPA has already begun closing libraries and restricting public access to many of the libraries that are still open. Thus far, we have seen the closure of three regional libraries – in Chicago, Dallas, and Kansas City – OPPTS and headquarters libraries in Washington, DC. Also, we have just learned that in the Region 4 library in Atlanta, the inter-library loan technician is the only staff member left, a fact EPA previously had not disclosed. The regional library in New York City was scheduled to be closed to the public with reduced hours for EPA staff on January 2, but, in light of Congressional and public pressure, EPA only recently decided to halt further closures of its libraries for the time being.Continue reading
Expect more from ExpectMore.gov
This headline is cheesy, but I can't resist. ExpectMore.gov is a website from the Office of Management and Budget that was launched last year to provide public reports on the performance of the many federal programs. You can browse through the list of Performing Programs, which are the ones OMB rates as being from adequate to effective, and the list of Not Performing Programs, which are either ineffective or have not adequately demonstrated results. The website explicitly explains why they gave each program its respective rating, and also explains what actions are to be taken to improve the program. This includes improving programs that are already highly rated; visit the report for the On-going Pest and Disease Management Program as an example. Wyatt Kash of Government Computer News recently reported in the article "Federal Web site introduces new analysis tools" on the many improvements ExpectMore.gov began rolling out this week. The website discusses on its What's New page the addition of a CSV (comma space delimited) [ZIP] file containing all the Program Assessment Rating Tool data. Kash's article adds, "Programs have also been more thoroughly tagged with up to three identification tags, said Shea, so researchers are likely to get more useful search results." I didn't see any information about this during a quick surf of the site, but the article indicated these improvements were just beginning to be introduced. Keep an eye out for more information. Continue reading