Reshuffling May Impair OGov

A rearrangement of staff within the White House may dilute the already weak enforcement of the president's open government directive, the Washington nonprofit Sunlight Foundation contends.

Office of Management Director Peter Orszag, who issued the memo to agencies, has exited. And White House Counsel Bob Bauer reportedly is taking on the added responsibility of open government oversight, which had previously fallen to Norm Eisen, the outgoing special counsel for ethics and government reform.

So far, the only penalty an agency gets for ignoring the directive is the embarrassment of a red light next to its name on a "dashboard" -- an online scorecard. The directive is supposed to institutionalize a culture of disclosure, public participation in government and collaboration with agencies, nationwide.

But Sunlight's Policy Director John Wonderlich writes on the group's blog:

The open government directive can either become a dated, rhetorical memo, or a transformative commitment to a new era of openness. Only if the White House holds agencies to their requirements and plans can the directive have real force. OMB Director Orszag has left, and with Eisen leaving, enforcement faces more uncertainty. When the public compliance dashboard doesn't meaningfully differentiate between failure and progress toward meeting expectations (compare the yellow to the red in this chart), we can expect clarity in enforcement to continue to be a concern.