OPINION:
On the campaign trail, Barack Obama made the bold promise that his administration would be more transparent than his predecessor’s. More than a year into his presidency, however, not much has changed. The list of complaints about openness is topped by the well-known failure to negotiate Obamacare in public. The president’s new deficit-reduction commission has followed the same lead and is conducting most of its deliberations behind closed doors.
Written documents also are closely guarded. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. refuses to release information about which of the Justice Department’s attorneys did private legal work for Guantanamo Bay detainees and which have (or have not) been recused from such issues because of conflicts of interest. The administration also is holding back the names of released Guantanamo detainees who have returned to terrorist activities. Rep. Frank Wolf, Virginia Republican, meanwhile, is among those complaining that the department still has not adequately answered his questions about why it dropped or reduced serious voter-intimidation charges against affiliates of the New Black Panther Party. Freedom of Information requests from The Washington Times on the same topic also have been shunted aside.
Sen. Jon Tester, Montana Democrat, and Rep. Steve Israel, New York Democrat, want to force the executive branch to open up. On Thursday, they introduced the Public Online Information Act (POIA), which would require government-held public information to be posted online. Classified information and private deliberations still would be protected, but the bill would give citizens access to documents without the red tape imposed by the current process.
The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation applauded the bill because it would make a number of important reports available online for the first time. These include lobbying disclosure reports filed by government contractors and grantees, the already-required financial disclosures of high-ranking political appointees and disclosures of third-party payments for the travel of executive-branch officials.
The more Americans know about the workings of their government, the better equipped they will be to make the right choices on Election Day. Until President Obama takes his promises seriously and opens up his administration, placing existing printed material online is a step in the right direction.
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