OMB Watch recaps the year in open government

In the year to come, expect more changes in the realm of openness and transparency in the Federal Government. That's the prediction of Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, one of the many "good government" groups based here in Washington.

In an exclusive interview with Federal News Radio, Bass first offered an assessment of how the Obama Administration was doing so far in its hallmark efforts at transparency and open government:

"They made a lot of promises, and we were waiting for things to happen, and at least when it comes to transparency issues, they're starting to happen."

Bass believes the administration has made great strides in overcoming what he called the "disfunction of government," symbolized by the government response to Hurricane Katrina, the contracting problems in Iraq, etc..

"My sense, since this administration has come in, is that government is beginning to work again, whether it's on the regulatory front in trying to protect the public from health and safety and other environmental dangers, all the way over to the extreme effort to make government open and accountable."

Bass also credits the Administration with understanding that "transparency can lead to a more accountable government," and says the White House has broken new ground in using websites like FedReporting.gov, and Recovery.gov to more openly account for Federal government spending.

In recent months, the Obama Administration has appointed a new Archivist to run the National Archives, the first to come from the library community. In turn, legislation approved during the Bush Administration created within the Archives the new "Office of Government Information Services, designed to serve as a referee between federal agencies, and those who make freedom of information act requests for agency information.

"OGIS is being run by Miriam Nisbet", he said, "a librarian who herself was working for the American Library Association. I think they're making solid progress. They're going out to talk to the agencies, and identify priority problems. They're also promising on their website a list of FOIA cases that they're going to keep an eye on. And finally, they're on the way to establishing a means for the public to get information and comments to them."

Finally, looking at the area of government performance, Bass praised the White House appointment of Jeffrey Zients, a former entrepreneur who is in his first government job ever as Chief Performance Officer at the Office of Management and Budget.

He also sees as a positive sign the creation of the Task Force on Government Performance within the Senate Budget Committee, chaired by former IT exec and former Virginia governor Mark Warner, as a sign that lawmakers recognize the need for "better government performance measures," and better ways of using performance data.

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