The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog

Wyden Pumps the Brakes on Anti-Leaks Legislation

By SUZIE DERSHOWITZ and ANGELA CANTERBURY

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is holding firm on free speech rights. Last week, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (S. 3454) was “hotlined”—the first step in clearing a bill for unanimous consent in the Senate. Usually, if there are no objections to the hotlined bill within a given amount of time, and leadership agrees, it is passed. But Wyden put the brakes on this legislation due to his concerns about the bill’s so-called anti-leak provisions.

Many of the provisions in Title V of the bill would reduce access to information the public has a right to know, put whistleblowers in jeopardy, and threaten government accountability. Thanks to Wyden’s objection, the Senate was unable to fast-track this far-reaching bill. In June, the Project On Government Oversight and more than 25 of our allies sent a letter to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees objecting to the bill’s anti-speech provisions, which diminish government transparency and jeopardize whistleblowers’ rights. The letter states:

While we recognize that leaks of appropriately and properly classified information are a serious problem, the American public requires access to some information about government conduct in order to foster an informed and meaningful national discussion, particularly about such issues as the use of drones to kill American citizens and other persons.

POGO and our allies in the government accountability community are currently organizing another letter thanking Senate leadership for delaying action on the bill until these concerns can be fully addressed. Any legislation intended to stop leaks of classified information should be carefully considered through an open process that provides ample opportunity for engaging in debate.

Government Best Practices for Managing a Crisis

Hurricane Sandy has devastated the Northeast, leaving entire neighborhoods under water, millions without power, and the entire New York subway system out of commission. The public is acutely aware of how important it is that the government be prepared to respond with advance warnings and accessible information on planning, preparing, and mitigating the effects of a natural disaster.

But public access to crucial information will not only save lives and prevent damage during a natural disaster, but also in cases of widespread outbreak of food-borne illness, catastrophic oil spills, or a terrorist attack. Last week, the Project On Government Oversight joined the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) Center for Science and Democracy and several other organizations in sending a letter offering crisis management recommendations to presidential candidates President Obama and Governor Romney. We hope the incoming Administration will take swift steps to adopt these ten recommendations to ensure the strongest possible crisis response policy.

UCS organized a panel of experts, ranging from public health and crisis information management specialists to openness and transparency advocates, to put together this list of core recommendations. POGO’s Director of Public Policy, Angela Canterbury, was a participant.

“Our new Center for Science and Democracy hopes to encourage experts working in diverse disciplines to come together as colleagues and offer recommendations that cross partisan and ideological lines,” said Celia Wexler, UCS Senior Washington Representative. “Crises challenge our democracy, and it’s crucial that they are addressed in a way that gives the public evidence-based information that will help them cope.”

One Year Later: Assessing Progress on National Action Plan

September 20 marked the one-year anniversary of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an international initiative bringing government and civil society together to promote greater openness in (currently 57) countries around the world. But in the words of Rakesh Rajani, head of one of OGP’s active civil society partners, at a recent anniversary celebration, “the mark of success for OGP is not how many countries sign on, but how many commitments they deliver.” A number of countries have made commitments to openness in the past year, and now comes the task of holding them to their word and ensuring that each commitment is translated into action. Several commitments in the U.S. National Action Plan (NAP) are of great interest to the Project On Government Oversight and OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition in which POGO is a partner.

The Obama Administration released a National Action Plan for the OGP detailing 26 specific commitments to make the U.S. government more open, transparent, and accountable to the public. These commitments are categorized under three broad challenges—increasing public integrity, managing public resources more effectively, and improving public services. Some of the wide-ranging commitments focus on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), declassification of national security information, improving whistleblower protections, and enhancing transparency in extractive industries and federal spending.

POGO and our allies in the transparency community had offered recommendations to the Administration to ensure a robust plan, and we were glad to see that the commitments largely incorporated many of our recommendations for reform. Now, a year later, is a good time to take stock of developments. OpenTheGovernment.org recently published a Civil Society Progress Report about the Administration’s headway since the NAP was released. (POGO’s Executive Director Danielle Brian chairs OpenTheGovernment.org’s Steering Committee, and POGO’s Director of Public Policy Angela Canterbury contributed to the progress report.)

So what are some highlights from OpenTheGovernment.org’s Progress Report, and what do they mean for the American people?

New DATA Act Would Make Following the Money Easier

Just before Congress left D.C. for the campaign trail, Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) reintroduced a bill to overhaul federal fiscal accountability. The new Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) is a trimmed-down version of the original bill introduced in the Senate by Warner and in the House by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), S. 1222/H.R. 2146. We applauded when the House unanimously passed it in April, and speculated that it could revolutionize fiscal accountability.

But since then, concerns about some of the more substantial structural reforms in the bill were raised by members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The new DATA Act addresses those concerns while still proposing much-needed improvements to the tools we have for tracking how taxpayer dollars are spent. 

Right now, it’s a mess. No one—I mean no one in government or outside—has a clear, comprehensive, or accurate picture of how the federal government spends money. It’s like that old Indian fable about the blind men (us) and the elephant (federal spending). USAspending.gov, created by the Obama-Coburn “Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006,” was a good beginning, but it has failed to streamline spending data or ensure its accuracy.

New Podcast: Just How Secret is the Government?

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

How many secrets does the government have? And where are they keeping them? POGO's Joe Newman and Suzie Dershowitz sat down with Amy Bennett from OpenTheGovernment.org, which just released its annual Secrecy Report, to discuss how secret the federal government was last year.

Find out what agency takes three years to process certain FOIA requests and which agency known for being secretive supposedly only classified four new documents last year. Find the podcast below.

• Listen to the latest podcast (or right click and save as to download)

• Subscribe to POGO podcasts via RSS
• Subscribe to POGO podcasts via iTunes (and don't forget to leave us a rating)
• Previous podcasts

Andre Francisco is an online producer with the Project On Government Oversight. Image by Pam Rutter.

Follow @andrefrancisco

One Year Into the Open Government Partnership

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

One year ago this week, the global Open Government Partnership was launched, and along with it the U.S. detailed their plan for a more open and transparent federal government.

In a new blog post, our friends over at OMB Watch give the highlights of an OpenTheGovernment.org report on what parts of the plan have been implimented and what areas still need work.

For instance, following up on the plan's commitment to modernize policies for managing government records, President Obama issued a well received memorandum in November 2011, which was followed by a directive with specific requirements in August.

...

Progress in other areas is wanting. For example, the plan promised that agencies would provide more information on their regulatory compliance and enforcement activities, as originally called for in a January 2011 memorandum. But few agencies have published their plans for doing so.

The administration will be releasing their own sel-assessment in early 2013, and after the initial transparency goals are met, the U.S. is supposed to form another plan for further improvements. Read the whole blog post over at OMB Watch.

Andre Francisco is an online producer for the Project On Government Oversight.

Follow @andrefrancisco

Federal Agencies Lagging on FOIA Processing-What's the Hold Up?

When the Office of Information Policy (OIP) at the Justice Department released its Summary of Agency Chief FOIA Officer Reports for 2012 and subsequently published its Summary of Annual FOIA Reports for FY 2011 a couple weeks later, POGO reviewed both assessments closely. We applaud the nine federal agencies (out of the 99 subject to the Freedom of Information Act in FY 2011) that earned top marks on their FOIA program, meeting all seventeen milestones included in the Chief FOIA Officer Reports Summary. However, POGO was disappointed to see some particularly sluggish FOIA processing performances from others.

Here’s a little background: In 1996, Congress passed the e-FOIA amendments (H.R. 3802), strengthening requirements for agencies to ensure timely responses to requests. To avoid prolonged delays for simple requests, Sec. 7 authorized multi-track processing. This means agencies can (and should) process simple and complex requests at the same time on separate tracks based on the amount of work or time involved—instead of on a “first-in, first-out” basis.

The Chief FOIA Officer Reports Summary provided statistics on the average number of days it takes each agency to process a simple request—one that does not involve unusual or exceptional circumstances. OIP clarified for POGO that they are tracking when an agency has provided a substantive response to the requester, not just a response, such as an acknowledgement letter. So these stats represent how long it takes (simple) requesters to actually get the information they are seeking. Sixty agencies in the OIP assessment processed the requests within an average of 20 working days or less. But twenty-seven agencies had a simple track and still failed to meet that requirement. While many of those agencies’ averages hovered just above 20 days, a few were shockingly high.

The Chief FOIA Officer Reports Summary indicated that it takes the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on average seven times longer to process a simple FOIA request than the 20-day legal limit for simple requests.

It takes State, for example, an astounding average of 155 days to process a simple request. When POGO asked why, a State Department spokesperson told us:

Report Reveals Some Open Gov Progress, but Also Increasing National Security Secrecy

By SUZIE DERSHOWITZ

Today, OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of over 80 groups (including POGO) advocating for more open and accountable government, released its annual Secrecy Report for 2012. (Full disclosure: POGO Director of Public Policy Angela Canterbury contributed to the report, and POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian is Chair of OpenTheGovernment.org’s steering committee.) The report demonstrated both positive changes resulting from the Obama Administration’s open government policies and enormous remaining challenges for the public’s ability to hold government accountable.

One of the most significant improvements documented in the report is the official disclosure in 2012 of the total amount of money requested for the intelligence budget for the first time in history. This is a huge win for government openness, particularly because government officials fought against transparency in intelligence spending for so long. It is also notable that, even though Congress only mandated disclosure of the National Intelligence Program request, the Secretary of Defense voluntarily disclosed the dollar amount requested for the Military Intelligence Program as well.

10 Questions for the 2012 Candidates

By ANGELA CANTERBURY

Click to see our 10 Questions for 2012 Candidates

There are a lot of distractions during election season. There are more and more gotcha ads, and increasingly less discussion about what really matters. At POGO, OpenTheGovernment.org and the American Society of Newspaper Editors we spend a lot of time thinking about how our government can be more transparent, accountable, and effective. We'd love to be having conversations with every candidate to help educate them and to inform the work that we do in Washington---no matter the results of the election. Perhaps together we can!

POGO, OpenTheGovernment.org and ASNE have put together some questions we hope will spark important discussions about our government and democracy. These questions cover a lot of ground--on issues ranging from how to balance national security with rights like free speech, how to know who's influencing elections and government policies, how to protect whistleblowers, how to follow the money the government spends, and more. What interests you?

Over the coming days and weeks candidates will be out shaking hands, kissing babies, and making appearances at county fairs, town hall meetings, debates--maybe in your neighborhood. If you have an opportunity to ask a candidate a question, check out the 10 Questions we'd most like to ask in 2012. Then tell us about the conversations you have with candidates about making our government more open and accountable!

Angela Canterbury is the director of public policy at the Project On Government Oversight. Image by Flickr user IowaPolitics.com.

Air Force Still Not Opening Up About F-22 Safety Problems

By ANNA MEIER

After years of looking into the F-22’s pilot disorientation problems—alleged to be just “oxygen” problems—the Air Force has announced that it has everything under control. According to some defense experts, however, the Air Force still has a long way to go in proving its investigation is complete, reliable and transparent.

Last week, Director of Operations for Air Combat Command Maj. Gen. Charlie Lyon briefed reporters on the F-22 Life Support Task Force study he led, an investigation of the serious problems F-22 pilots have suffered in flight since at least 2008. The purpose of Lyons’ briefing was fourfold:

• to reassure reporters and the public that, despite the earlier failure of the Air Force’s Scientific Advisory Board to pinpoint a cause of the problems, the Air Force has finally found the “major contributor”: a valve on the pilots’ pressure vests that causes them to inflate when they shouldn’t;
• to use the supposedly unprecedented high altitude and high G capabilities of the F-22 to explain both the need for the vest and why the pilot and pressure vest problems were not anticipated or tested earlier;
• to deny the possibility that toxic fumes from the fighter’s stealth skin or from onboard fluids were a cause; and
• to convince everyone that the Air Force’s medical tests, physiological tests, chemical monitoring, and scientific analysis of each incident are so thorough and so objective that no one can doubt Gen. Lyons’ conclusions—despite the absence of a report documenting all this thoroughness and no promise that such a report will ever be released.

Each of these four points raises even more questions, including whether the Air Force is more focused on ending inquiry into the matter than actually solving the problem.

Say Hello To SAM, The New Federal Awards Database

By NEIL GORDON

After delays and ballooning costs, Phase 1 of the General Services Administration’s (GSA) federal procurement and awards database, the System for Award Management (SAM), went live on Monday.

The new SAM database is being touted as an optimally streamlined data resource that will bring greater efficiency and result in significant cost savings. SAM will eventually consolidate nine online government databases into one system. Phase 1 includes the Central Contractor Registration (CCR), the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS). These stand-alone legacy systems will be shut down as they are added to SAM.

The public can search for information on contractors and grantees without having to log in or register for a SAM account, although registration is required if you want to save your searches. Information that was previously publicly available in the legacy systems will now be publicly accessible in SAM. Sadly, this means contractor past performance data will still be off-limits.

Fast and Furious? More Like Slow and Painful

As the dust settles on the U.S. House of Representatives' vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress (which followed the White House invoking executive privilege to prevent the release of documents), I've watched the events unfold from the sidelines in pain.

Whenever you recognize someone for their service or achievement, there's always the chance that award recipients will turn around and disappoint even some of their most fervent fans. In 2010 and 2011, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) ran this risk when we chose to publicly recognize both House Government Affairs and Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and President Barack Obama for promoting open government, oversight and accountability.

Sadly, nothing in the sorry episode advances the causes that Issa and Obama championed. Having given awards to both men for their commitment to good government and open government respectively, I feel compelled to say something.