transparency

A review of federal agency classification programs by the National Archives and Records Administration Information Security Oversight Office found that, for the most part, agencies have clarified what categories of information need to be classified to protect national security.

A 3 year effort to speed up responses to Freedom of Information Act programs has had mixed results at 16 federal agencies, in many cases resulting in more backlogged requests and the increased use of exemptions to withhold information, the GAO finds. Auditors also find that many electronic FOIA libraries are "sparsely populated" because the agencies aren't ensuring frequently requested records are identified and posted online.

The Social Security Administration shut down an advisory committee on technological change and said it would not implement its recommendations without any evidence that it has assessed the costs and benefits of those recommendations, says the SSA office of inspector general. During its existence, the panel issued four reports and made 78 recommendations ranging from quick, low-cost measures that SSA could undertake for immediate productivity gains to fundamental changes to its service delivery model.

Thirty-nine percent of the Justice Department's office of legal counsel opinions are partially or completely withheld from the public, according to research from the Sunlight Foundation outlined in an Aug. 15 blog post. This is despite a 2010 DOJ memo endorsing the "presumption that [OLC] should make significant opinions fully and promptly available to the public."The transparency watchdog analyzed a cache of 15 years-worth of  OLC opinions  obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and published by  Government Attic .