SEPTEMBER 20, 2011
THE OPEN GOVERNMENTPARTNERSHIP
NATIONAL ACTION PLANFOR THE UNITED STATESOF AMERICA
U.S. National
ACTION PLAN
INTRODUCTION
Since the rst day o his Administration, President Barack Obama has made Open Government a high priority. TheMemorandum on Transparency and Open Government was the rst executive action to bear the President’s signature,and the President has pledged his Administration to work toward “an unprecedented level o openness in Government.”Over the past two and a hal years, Federal agencies have done a great deal to make government more transparent andmore accessible, to provide people with inormation that they can use in their daily lives, to solicit public participationin government decision-making, and to collaborate with all sectors o the economy on new and innovative solutions.These Open Government eorts are now entering a new phase, as we collaborate with other countries in the globalOpen Government Partnership (OGP).
President Obama has emphasized three independent reasons to support Open Government:
•OpenGovernmentpromotesaccountability,whichcanimproveperformance.InthewordsofSupremeCourt
Justice Louis Brandeis: “Sunlight is said to be the best o disinectants.”
•Transparencyenablespeopletondinformationthatthey“canreadilyndanduse.”Forthisreason,the
President has asked agencies to “harness new technologies” and “solicit public eedback to identiyinormation o greatest use to the public.”
•Inmanydomains,governmentshoulddeveloppolicies,rules,andplanswithclosereferencetothe
knowledge, expertise, and perspectives o diverse members o the public. As the President has said,“[k]nowledge is widely dispersed in society, and public ocials benet rom having access to thatdispersed knowledge” and hence to “collective expertise and wisdom.”As it developed a U.S. National Action Plan (“National Plan”), the Federal Government engaged in extensiveconsultations with external stakeholders, including a broad range o civil society groups and members o the private
sector.ItsolicitedinputfromtheAdministration’sownOpenGovernmentWorkingGroup,comprisedofsenior-levelrepresentativesfromexecutivebranchdepartmentsandagencies.WhiteHousepolicymakersalsoengagedthe
public via a series o blog posts, requesting ideas about how to ocus Open Government eorts on increasing publicintegrity, more eectively managing public resources, and improving public services. Responsive submissions wereposted online.
ThisNationalPlanbuildson,butdoesnotreplace,theOpenGovernmentInitiativeinauguratedbythePresident’s
Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. The National Plan will briefy highlight what has beenaccomplished thus ar and lay out some o our goals and plans or the uture.The process o opening government is a continuing work-in-progress. This National Plan is but one step in aninitiative that has produced signicant results over the last two and a hal years and that will continue, under thePresident’s leadership, in many orms in the uture. Just as we will continue to generate and implement OpenGovernment policies and reorms, so, too, we will continue to seek input rom outside groups and citizens about howto create a more Open Government.
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U.S. National
ACTION PLAN
U.S. OPEN GOVERNMENT EFFORTS TO DATE
Over the last two and a hal years, the Administration has taken numerous specic steps to make the FederalGovernment more transparent, participatory, and collaborative. The Administration’s Open Government eorts to
dateareoutlinedingreatdetailin“TheObamaAdministration’sCommitmenttoOpenGovernment:AStatusReport.”
That Status Report outlines the Administration’s major Open Government initiatives, summarizes the progress madeon those initiatives, and explains how the Administration will continue to implement them over the next months andyears. A more complete picture o current Open Government eorts and accomplishments to date can also be oundon agency Open Government web pages, available at www.[agency domain].gov/open.
While agency Open Government Plans continue to evolve and improve with the help of public participation, theAdministration has numerous accomplishments to date. Examples include:
1. Open Government Directive and Agency Plans.
The OMB Open Government Directive required agencies bothto take immediate specic steps and to establish long-term goals to achieve greater openness and transparency.
Inaddition,numerousagenciescreatedOpenGovernmentPlans,whichlayoutindetailhowtheywillincrease
transparency and integrate public participation and collaboration into their core activities.
2. Data Availability.
As agencies developed their Open Government Plans, they made unprecedented amounts oinormation available and easily accessible to the public, in part through a centralized government platorm, Data.gov.This platorm, designed in large part to provide people with inormation that they can readily nd and use, now givesthe public access to over 390,000 high value agency data sets on such diverse subjects as auto saety, air travel, airquality, workplace saety, drug saety, nutrition, crime, obesity, employment, and health care.
3. Disclosure to Increase Accountability and to Promote Inormed Consumer Choice.
The Administration has takennumerous steps to inorm consumers in areas such as health, education, nutrition, energy eciency, uel economy,environmental protection, and nancial services. Building on governmentwide guidance issued by OMB on June 18,2010, the Administration is promoting, in many areas, the use o disclosure as a low-cost, high-impact regulatory toolto ensure inormed decisions.
4. Data Communities to Spark Breakthroughs or National Priorities.
The President released the Strategy or
AmericanInnovationasablueprintforsparkinginnovativesolutionstowell-denedproblemsofnationalimportance.
The Administration has played a role in harnessing American ingenuity by launching Data.gov communities tosimpliy access to high value data and inorm innovators and the private sector about a growing array o agency prizes,challenges, and competitions.
5. Enorcement and Compliance Data.
The President issued a memorandum on January 18, 2011 requiring Federalenorcement agencies to make publicly-available compliance inormation easily accessible, downloadable, andsearchable online.
6. Reviewing Existing Agency Rules.
InExecutiveOrder13563,“ImprovingRegulationandRegulatoryReview,”the
President required Federal agencies and departments to undertake an unprecedentedly open process or reviewingtheir existing rules. The process invited extensive public comment and has resulted in the creation o plans that willeliminate millions o hours in annual reporting burdens and billions o dollars in annual regulatory costs.
7. Government Transparency.
TheWhiteHousehasestablishedaclearpresumptioninfavorofopennessbypostingvisitorrecords,stanancialdisclosures,salaries,andethicswaiversontheWhiteHousewebsiteforthersttime
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The Open Government Partnership
Over the past two and a half years, Federal agencies have done a great deal to make government more transparent and more accessible, to provide people with information that they can use in their daily lives,…
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