And The Rosemary Goes to...

This year's Rosemary Award for worst open government performance goes to the Federal Chief Information Officers Council, the senior officials who have never addressed the failure of the federal government to save its e-mail electronically.

The Rosemary Award is named after President Nixon's secretary who erased 18 1/2 minutes of a crucial Watergate tape.

For more about this years "winners," click here.

Open Records Advocates Seek to Remove Exemptions to FOIA

Tom Curley, president and chief executive of The Associated Press, testified on behalf of the Sunshine in Government Initiative at a hearing regarding the Office of Government Information Services.  He noted there is still a "secrecy reflex" in place at many federal agencies, despite the Obama's new standards for government openness.   

Curley cited more than 240 statutes that agencies may use for denying FOIA requests.

Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) have introduced legislation in the Senate that would require any such exemptions to be clearly stated, rather than be buried in the legislation.  The legislation has passed the Senate twice but has not yet been considered by the House.

Get more information here.  Read Curley's testimony here.

Obama approves $1 million for FOIA ombudsman

The Bush administration provided no funding for the new Office of Government Information Services and attempted to relocate it under the Justice Department, which defends the government FOIA decisions, Columbia Journalism Review reported. The good news, however, is that Obama's budget provides $1 million to the new office, which is likely to be up and running by the end of the year in the National Archives, instead.

The budget President Obama just signed includes one million dollars for the new Office of Government Information Services, which will be housed in the National Archives that is charged with serving as a government wide ombudsman for the Freedom of Information Act process.

Gary Stern, the Archives’ general counsel, speaking in January before a Washington College of Law-sponsored conference on freedom of information, made it clear that the agency was expecting an initial appropriation of that amount, and said that most of the funds would go towards the office’s director and a half dozen support staff.

The Bush administration had, despite the explicit intent of congress, signed a quiet budget provision in an attempt to put the office within the branch of the Justice Department charged with defending the government’s FOIA decisions, and provided it with no funding. Outside advocates and members of Congress members who’d worked on creating OGIS not surprisingly viewed this as a rather naked conflict of interest and an attempt to neuter the office.

More here.

New online repository for fed. docs goes live

You could always Google whatever federal document you're looking for, but the new Federal Digital System will now house the originals along with an archive of documents released by the White House Press Office.

The Government Printing Office today launches Federal Digital System (FDsys), the new online home for original federal documents.

Users will eventually be able to search for information from the government's 50 different collections. The site currently hosts the eight most-popular collections, including the Federal Register, the Congressional Record and archive of Congressional hearings. The other collections will be added to the site by this summer, according to GPO's chief information officer Mike Wash.

The new site also marks the launch of the Federal Register's new Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents, an archive of executive orders, speeches and other information released by the White House Press Office. The daily online compilation replaces the printed Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.

More here.

Suggestions for Office of Government Information Services reforms arise in congressional hearing

Activists stressed the importance of the Office of Government Information Services continuing to serve as independent mediator in FOIA disputes.

Open-government advocates renewed their calls Wednesday for quick implementation of the latest Freedom of Information reforms, including the establishment of an ombudsman office.

Congress has appropriated $1 million for the Office of Government Information Services but the money will not be available until the next fiscal year. The reforms were slowed by Bush administration efforts to move the new office from the National Archives, where Congress placed it in legislation last year, to the Justice Department.

As a result, the National Archives has yet to get the office up and running.

More here.