New executive branch directive seeks to build an “open” government.
On December 8, 2009, Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, issued the Obama Administration’s long-anticipated Open Government Directive. The Directive imposes requirements on all executive departments and agencies intended “to implement the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration” in the federal government.
A key part of the Directive is the requirement that each agency develop an “Open Government Plan” in an effort to “create and institutionalize a culture of open government” at each agency. This planning requirement directly follows one of the core recommendations to the new administration found in a report of a Task Force on Transparency and Public Participation chaired by Cary Coglianese, namely to impose participation planning requirements on agencies “to alter the bureaucratic culture within agencies over the long term.”
On the same day Orszag issued the Open Government Directive, the Administration also released a status report on its efforts to promote transparency and public participation in the federal government.
The photograph of President Obama is used unaltered under a Creative Commons license.
