White House Unveils Third Open Government "Action Plan"

"Action" may be too strong a word. For that matter, "open" may be too strong a word. The Obama administration Tuesday unveiled its third "National Action Plan" at the international Open Government Partnership in Mexico.

You can find the third iteration of the plan here. But one thing to note is that many items are held over from the second plan because they have not yet been accomplished.

This from an administration that is still struggling at home to live up to its pledge in 2009 to conduct the "most transparent administration ever."

One item in the plan, for example, is a government-wide online portal for handling Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Actually, such a portal has been prototyped by agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for years. But its success has been limited by poor participation by federal agencies — and lack of disclosure by the agencies (like EPA) who do participate.

• "The White House Says It Has a Plan To Be More Open," Wired, October 27, 2015, by Issie Lapowsky.
• "Advancing Open and Citizen-Centered Government," White House blog, October 27, 2015, by Mary Beth Goodman and Megan Smith.
• "Open Government Summit: PR Stunt Or a Chance for Real Change?" Guardian, October 28, 2015, by Simon Burall.
• Previous Story: WatchDog of November 6, 2013.