STATUS REPORT
Responding to the President's challenge, the United States and Brazil are jointly leading a multi-stakeholder effort, the Open Government Partnership, to support more open and transparent government around the world. In July 2011, Secretary Clinton hosted a meeting of over sixty governments to announce this new effort, and to initiate the development of country-specific commitments to promote transparency and citizen participation, in anticipation of the formal launch of the Open Government Partnership in September 2011 in New York.
Congress
The promise of open government cannot be fully realized by the executive branch alone, however. Increasing the accountability of public decision-makers, strengthening our democracy, and promoting efficiency—these all will require greater openness on the part of Congress as well. Congress could do more of its share to promote open government, in part by taking steps not unlike those the White House has taken.
Members of Congress might, for instance, post their daily schedules online, and make electronic subscriptions to those schedules available to the public. They could post logs of all visitors to House and Senate offices. Members could post their income tax returns and financial disclosure forms, and make those downloadable for the public. Congress could also do more to post ethics investigations and reports. Members could take ethics pledges, and require the same of their staffs, to combat the influence of lobbyists, and close the "revolving door" between Capitol Hill and lobbyists at least part way.
These are just examples of what Congress could do to promote open government; other steps may be equally important. Which particular reforms are best to create a more open legislative branch is of course a matter for Congress to determine. The point is that the Administration's efforts to create an unprecedented level of openness in government have not been matched by the legislative branch. Yet fully realizing the benefits of open government will require greater openness by Congress as well.
CONCLUSION
To strengthen democracy and promote government efficiency and effectiveness, President Obama committed to promote a new level of openness in government. Accordingly, for over past two years, the Administration has taken substantial steps towards creating a more open government. At the President's direction, federal agencies have promoted greater transparency, participation, and collaboration through a number of major initiatives. The results of those efforts are measurable, and they are substantial. Agencies have disclosed more information in response to FOIA requests; developed and begun to implement comprehensive Open Government plans; made thousands of government data sets publically available; promoted partnerships and leveraged private innovation to improve citizens' lives; increased federal spending transparency; and declassified information and limited the proliferation of classified information.
To be sure, these efforts are still in progress, a consequence of their ambitious scope. The Administration will continue to improve FOIA's architecture, implement and expand agencies' Open Government Plans, make new government data available and solicit participation
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