In February 2021, we authored a coalition letter to the White House with open questions about open government. While then-Press Secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged receipt & shared with staff who work on public engagement and democracy, neither she nor they ever answered the questions. President Biden has not responded to a 2023 coalition letter on advancing ambitious new commitments on open government to defend democracy either.
As 2024 begins, we want to share what we’ve learned through actions about the administration’s record on these questions. While our assessment is not a comprehensive representation of how history will remember the Biden Administration, parallel to the Sunlight Foundation’s evaluation of President Obama’s record, we believe it’s important to put down an account that’s fair, accurate, and honest given the public attention devoted to the Secretary of Defense’s indefensible secrecy regarding his hospitalization.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed last week that “the President has always put transparency at the center of his administration, from the beginning, and obviously, that’s what we’re going to continue to do. So, we’re going to continue to be transparent.”
Rear Admiral Kirby made a similar claim this week, asserting that “the President is committed to transparency. We’re all committed to being as transparent as possible on a range of issues. And we endorse — and — and are in favor of efforts to be as transparent with the American people as possible, national security implications, obviously, notwithstanding.”
Let’s be clear: that’s not true. It wasn’t true in 2021, and it’s not true now.
Former President Obama put transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration at the center of his administration when he issued a memorandum on open government on the first day in office, an executive order, a global partnership, and oversaw eight years of an open government initiative.
While President Biden has reversed the secrecy of his predecessor by disclosing tax returns and White House visitor logs, he has never centered open government in the same way. He has declined to take ambitious actions to reinvigorate open government in the United States or around the world and engaged the American people around these issues. In fact, his administration has declined to make symbolic gestures, as the answers to our questions (below) show.
On the other side of the ledger, however, the Administration has taken many actions that do demonstrate a commitment to transparency that is generally not reported by political journalists nor understood by the general public, much less acknowledged and celebrated by political opposition. We hope recounting this record is helpful to everyone.
Q1: Will you bring back a White House /opengov page with a blog, links to past and present plans for the Open Government Partnership, agency plans and progress, Challenge.Gov, open data sets, petitions, & more? Many agency /open pages across the US government still link to it, as you can see at dhs.gov/open, but it’s a 404.
A: No.
Q2: Will this White House disclose visitor logs online again? As open data at open.whitehouse.gov?
Yes: whitehouse.gov/disclosures/visitor-logs/
Will the White House disclose virtual visitor logs?
A: No.
Q3: Will the White House post ALL executive branch ethics waivers, authorizations, approvals, certifications, pledges, & other legal operative ethics documents (excluding individual advice) in a centralized database on Office of Government Ethics website & redirect Ethics.gov to it?
A: No.
Q4: Will the White House Office of Management and Budget support bills that codify visitor log disclosure online for the administration in Congress? What about for federal agencies?
Q5: Will the Press Secretary post press pool reports & daily guidance that goes to the press on WhiteHouse.gov for public consumption, including schedules?
A: No. Forth News publishes pool reports at /forth.news/whpool. Factba.se publishes the President’s public calendars: https://factba.se/biden/topic/calendar
Q6: Will the White House annotate all images on social media & always link to plaintext versions of statements, orders, or other official documents from its updates on social media platforms?
A: Over time, yes. Images have ALT annotations.
Q7: Will you revisit a rulemaking on how the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to websites & social media run by state & local governments, or by public accommodations?
A: Yes. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division issued Web guidance on a redesigned ADA.gov and The Justice Department has proposed a rule.
Additionally, the Office of Management and Budget issued new guidance on strengthening digital accessibility and the management of Section 508.
Q8: Will President Biden bring back and build upon White House e-petitions, like the Obama White House and Trump White House, which was a flagship US open government commitment to the Open Government Partnership co-founded by President Obama?
A: No.
Q9: Will the Press Secretary host online Q&As with the public on social media? Will you enable Americans to vote for questions & have the President answer, as President Obama did? Would you add a “public chair” in briefings?
A: Yes – but not live: https://youtube.com/watch?v=cp39fD2OMyg
No.
Q10: Will the White House host another National Day of Civic Hacking? What about an annual science fair?
A: No, not yet.
Q11: Who will lead the open government portfolio for USG? Will there be an ethics, transparency, or accountability “czar” in the Office of Management and Budget or Cabinet? Will any White House officials have open government as their primary portfolio?
A: Justin Vail, Alexander Macgillivray, Denice Ross, and Robin Carnahan.
No.
No.
Q12: Will the Biden administration restart agency open government action plans again, as mandated under the Open Government Directive, & refresh agency /open pages?
A: No. Several agencies, like the National Archives, Commerce Department, and Office of Government Ethics, have kept updating their plans and pages anyway.
Q13: Will the monthly interagency open government meetings start up again? Will the White House restore the public Google Group for discussion?
Unclear. The White House Open Govenment Working Group has no public presence nor updates on its activities. There was no public communication after the Office of Science and Technology posted a press release in December 2022, after which the quoted officials left government.
Yes: https://open.usa.gov/mailing-list/
Q14: How will this administration approach using technology for transparency, accountability, & ethics to rebuild public trust in government and public health information?
A: The 5th U.S. National Action Plan for Open Government lists many ongoing initiatives.
Q14: Who will be USCTO? USCIO? US CDO? US Chief Data Scientist?
A: The President has not nominated a US CTO. Macgillivray was principal deputy USCTO; now Dierdre Mulligan is serving.
Clare Martorana is US CIO.
No USCDO.
Yes: Denice Ross, & now Dominique Duval-Diop.
Q15: In 2009, President Obama issued an open government memorandum. Can we expect a new memo, especially on the Freedom of Information Act? Will there be a refreshed executive order on open government?
A: Yes. SAG Garland issued a memo on FOIA in 2022.
No. No open government memo or executive order by the President.
Q16: How will the President and the Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy harmonize the Open Government Data Act with Freedom of Information Act administration & proactive disclosure?
A: The White House has not issued Congressionally mandated guidance on open data, 5 years after the bill was signed into law. President Biden has had no comment on the FOIA or OPEN Government Data Act. The CIO Council and the Chief Data Officers Council are leading in the interim but have not received the resources necessary to implement the law.
Q17: How will the Biden administration build on the federal open source software (OSS) policy & Code.gov?
A: No updates on Code.gov since 2021. 18F at the GSA continues to develop open source software and publish code on Github. https://github.com/18f
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is leading efforts to secure OSS. https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/open-source-software-must-start-secure-code
Q18: How will the administration approach algorithmic transparency, accountability, & “auditability” to address bias or inequities in service delivery or outcomes?
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy created a voluntary AI “Bill of Rights”: whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/
The President issued an AI executive order. OMB issued draft guidance and an RFI, which we responded to in a letter focused on transparency and accountability.
Q19: Will US government publish an inventory of algorithms used by agencies to make policy decisions? Will it publish source code? Will it audit agency algorithms for bias, & publish impact statements?
A: Yes. Agencies are publishing AI use cases, but haphazardly. No source code for algorithms and models. No.
Maybe.
Q20: Will the administration support a federal shield law for acts of journalism?
A: The President and OMB have not issued a statement of White House support for the PRESS Act.
Q21: Will the Biden administration commit to never prosecuting journalists using the Espionage Act?
No. https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/the-espionage-acts-big-week.php
Q22: Will the Biden administration fill all of the open inspectors general positions at agencies by the end of 2021? How will it work to ensure they are free from political control?
A: No: oversight.gov/ig-vacancies
OMB issued guidance on IGs in 2021.
Q23: How will the Biden administration approach reclaiming U.S. leadership in open government & democracy globally?
A: President Biden hosted hosted two Summit for Democracy without a robust domestic engagement component or establishing a permanent Secretariat, and declined to co-create an national action plan with Americans.
The administration did not make enacting voting rights and democracy reforms a priority in Congress throughout 2021, but has pursued an “initiative for democratic renewal. ”
The administration successfully convened a coalition to defend Ukrainian democracy against a Russian invasion with accurate information about Russian intent and plans to go to war.
USAID and the State Department have continued multiple initiatives and programs to improve democracy in other nations.
Q24: What specific steps will the Biden administration take to support and defend whistleblowers and whistleblowing?
A: OMB supported Congressional efforts to strengthen whistleblower protections.
Conclusion
In sum, the administration has a mixed record. There is ample evidence of genuine commitments to transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration across agencies alongside an ongoing void in Presidential leadership and a cohesive national strategy to rebuild public trust in government through participation and engagement, versus improving delivery of services.
Making open government into a compliance exercise within the U.S. General Services Administration won’t move the needle. Most agencies will ignore the Secretariat if the Domestic Policy Council and White House isn’t involved.
Every President needs to show open government matters to them, in principle and practices, and then engage the American people on co-creating new commitments and implementing them in the open.
If the White House does not lead “by the power of our example” in 2024 by revising the opaque approach, however, our government will lose another opportunity to build trust through accountability and increase resilience against authoritarianism through transparency.
Governing Digital 