Groups want OMB to reconsider info policy revisions

The federal government is giving interested parties until Dec. 5 to comment on proposed revisions to Circular A-130, the Office of Management and Budget's baseline IT policy document.

A 15-day extension was granted in response to a request from 11 organizations interested in the public information and access sections of the revised document. Patrice McDermott, executive director of OpenTheGovernment.org, wrote the letter requesting the extension based on concerns that language about the importance of information in a democracy and the right of the public to access government information had been excised from the previous version.

A veteran of information policy battles, McDermott said she welcomes the updates on acquisition and cybersecurity but does not want to lose sections of the document "that we fought really hard to get in there" in previous editions.

"The new A-130 is focused on information as data and focused on information for innovation and entrepreneurship," McDermott said in reference to the updates that enshrine the Obama administration’s open-data efforts in official policy.

But the update also deletes language that frames the statement, "The free flow of information between the government and the public is essential to a democratic society," as a basic assumption.

McDermott’s concerns are shared by a number of organizations that signed onto the request, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the American Library Association, the Government Accountability Project and the Sunlight Foundation. They want officials to restore the earlier language and emphasis on the importance of information to a democracy.

"Some important parts of the baby are being thrown out with the bathwater," McDermott told FCW.

A-130 is the policy guide for government information professionals. Although it does not have the force of law or regulation, it is essentially a playbook for the CIO community to use in acquiring, deploying and managing information systems. The proposed revision is the first in 15 years.

"It's important to maintain the philosophical discussions [and] the reasoning about why information is important -- not just for encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship but why it's central to who we are as the public in these United States," McDermott said.

She and her colleagues are not alone in voicing objections to the revised A-130. Others have complained that the new document does not do enough to capture advances in software development best practices and does not include any of the various playbooks on acquisition, design and development created by new high-tech teams at 18F and the U.S. Digital Service.