ADMINISTRATION
The Challenge Of Transparency

Promising that "transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency," President Obama announced on his second day in office that he would usher in "a new era of openness in our country." As a senator, Obama spearheaded legislation that allowed ordinary Americans to track government spending via USASpending.gov. A subsequent bill he introduced would have improved this website and increased the disclosures required by government contractors. As President-elect, Obama created Change.gov, which allowed anyone with an Internet connection to submit questions to the transition team and posted documents provided to the incoming administration by outside lobbying groups. More recently, however, the Obama administration has stumbled on its way to ensuring that government is transparent and accessible.

A PROMISING START: On his first full day in office, Obama issued a memorandum to all heads of departments and agencies directing them to "harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public." The centerpiece of this memorandum was a directive to his Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to come up with a set of  recommendations within 120 days "that instructs executive departments and agencies to take specific actions" to ensure transparency in government. Although the deadline for the CTO's recommendations was effectively extended due to delays in appointing that officer, the White House has already created a number of websites designed to keep Americans informed about their government. Some examples include Recovery.gov, which allows Internet users to track stimulus spending and report possible fraud, waste or abuse; the Open Government Initiative; and Data.gov, which allows users to to search non-sensitive government databases. Additionally, the White House has engaged the public on a variety of open media sites, such as Youtube and Flickr. Quoting Justice Louis Brandeis's maxim that "sunlight is the best disinfectant," the President also reversed a Bush administration policy of hostility to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, ordering the Attorney General to establish new FOIA guidelines applying "a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails." Other transparency initiatives have ranged from eliminating illogical Bush-era restrictions (for instance, the Vice President's residence is now unobscured on Google Maps) to revealing the kinds of transgressions that cast doubt on our very humanity -- the torture memos. Despite conservative claims that revealing the widespread human rights abuses of the Bush regime would somehow endanger American lives, Obama determined that the best way to move beyond that "dark and painful chapter in our history" was to disclose the inexcusably shoddy legal reasoning of lawyers who ignored both the law and their own ethical duties as attorneys to justify practices such as "waterboarding."

NEW VEIL OF SECRECY: For all of the administration's promising early steps to restore transparency and accountability, however recent developments are less encouraging. Some of these stumbling points have been simple failures of implementation; many of the administration's budget transparency websites, for example, publish inconsistent numbers. Other transparency failures, however, suggest a more disturbing trend.  Despite promises to end "secret meetings" and restore the White House as the "people's house," the administration has refused to disclose the names of individuals who have visited the White House since Obama took office, while echoing similar excuses by Bush administration officials who wanted to hide secret meetings with energy industry executives. But most disturbing are recent, tenuous invocations of "national security" to cast a shade over government transparency. After the Environmental Protection Agency uncovered nearly four dozen toxic coal ash sites in Tennessee that "could cause death and significant property damage if an event such as a storm, a terrorist attack or a structural failure caused them to spill into surrounding communities," the administration choose to keep the locations of the toxic sites secret from Tennessee residents because of  fears that such disclosure could present a "security risk." Similarly, despite earlier disclosure of the infamous torture memos, the Obama CIA has thus far successfully kept secret a comprehensive account of that agency's interrogation practices. Although a heavily redacted version of the report was uncovered by the ACLU, the administration insists that disclosing the full report would endanger national security. Even more alarming, however, is the Obama administration's adoption of Bush's "state secrets" claim in court cases dealing with issues ranging from extraordinary rendition to warrantless wiretapping. The "state secrets" privilege allows the administration to withhold information in a lawsuit or even dismiss the suit altogether if the subject matter of the suit could potentially reveal information that puts national security at risk. In one suit, brought by an Islamic charity challenging the previous administration's warrantless wiretapping program, a federal judge finally threatened sanctions against the Justice Department if it did not comply with an order to turn over a document to the plaintiff's attorneys. Incidents such as these led the New York Times to lament that Obama has "backtracked, in substantial if often nuanced ways, from the approach to national security that he preached as a candidate, and even from his first days in the Oval Office."

THE ROAD AHEAD: Three upcoming benchmarks will provide an important window into how the White House plans to move forward on transparency. One is tomorrow's deadline for Americans to submit their comments on government transparency to the President's Open Government Initiative. In the coming week, the administration will begin the process of "crafting constructive proposals" based in part on comments submitted to the Initiative. A second is deciding how the White House regards legislation, such as the Open FOIA Act, which limits the Executive Branch's authority to rely on ambiguous laws to justify denying FOIA requests. Finally, Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday that a long-awaited DOJ report on ethical violations by torture advocates such as John Yoo and Judge Jay Bybee is "weeks away." Holder promised to publish "as complete a report as we can" without revealing information that should remain classified. Whether the administration will declassify enough of the report to provide a full picture of the former Justice Department officials' transgressions remains to be seen. However, full disclosure of their actions will not only serve the Obama administration's stated goals of fostering "transparency and openness," it will revive the now-dormant possibility of accountability for some of torture's chief advocates, at least one of whom still sits in judgment of others' transgressions as a lifetime appointee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Under the Radar

CIVIL RIGHTS -- OBAMA MOVES TOWARD EQUALITY FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES: On Wednesday evening, President Obama signed a memorandum that, among other things, gives same-sex domestic partners of federal employees access to long-term-care benefits and allows civil servants to use sick leave to look after domestic partners and children not related by blood or adoption. Because the federal government is the nation's largest employer, with roughly 2 million civil servants, gay rights groups have argued that bringing the federal workforce into compliance with anti-discrimination laws will lead the private sector through example. Obama called the move "long-overdue." Winnie Stachelberg, Senior Vice President for External Affairs at the Center for American Progress, said the signing "shows the president's desire to provide equality for federal employees." But Stachelberg also called on the President to work together with Congress to "finish the job by passing measures such as the Domestic Partner Benefits and Obligations Act and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, which would truly ensure equal benefits and rights for federal employees." Obama echoed those sentiments, saying the memorandum was just "one step." Citing federal restrictions, Obama asked for Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who both attended the ceremony, to push forward legislation they have introduced that would extend full health care benefits to gay spouses of federal employees. Obama added that he would work to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, calling it discriminatory while saying that Americans should not be prevented from receiving equal benefits "because of who they love."

Think Fast

Although Senate Republicans continue to block dozens of key Obama nominees, the President has no plans to give them recess appointments. By bottling up these nominees, Republicans are attempting to delay action on key administration priorities like health care and climate change legislation by consuming precious floor time.

Last night, the Senate passed by unanimous consent a bill that would prevent the release of controversial photos of alleged U.S. abuse of prisoners and detainees. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), was proposed as stand-alone legislation after it was stripped from a war funding supplemental bill by House Democrats.

"Iran braced for a fourth day of massive protests Thursday by opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in open defiance of the country's supreme leader, who has urged the nation to unite behind the Islamic state." Meanwhile, Iran's Guardian Council announced that it will convene the three major presidential candidates to discuss their grievances.

"A Senate energy bill was voted out of committee yesterday, but not before losing the support of two Democrats and a dozen leading environmental organizations." Environmental groups dislike the offshore drilling allowances and weak renewable electricity standard that allows too many exemptions. The bill also subsidizes nuclear power and would "ease restrictions on the federal government's use of petroleum from Canadian tar sands."

The American Medical Association (AMA) ended their annual conference by "signaling they won't close the door" on one of Obama's key proposals, a public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers. "The AMA did not close doors. The AMA said we will evaluate all proposals in light of our principles," said outgoing AMA President Nancy Nielsen.

"President Obama's push for a bipartisan healthcare overhaul suffered a double blow on Wednesday when Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) announced he would cut $600 billion from his measure while Republicans derided a Democratic markup of an alternative bill as a 'joke.'" When asked if his massive cuts could mean delaying the bill until after the July 4th recess, Baucus replied, "I hope not, but I can't guarantee it."

Former Sens. Bob Dole (R-KS) and Tom Daschle (D-ND) have "launched a bipartisan push for healthcare reform, but they took issue with a central feature of the President's plan, a public, government-run health insurance program." "If you want to stop this thing dead in its tracks, or dead on arrival, in my view, you put the public plan in it," Dole said. Daschle "said the public option probably needs to be scrapped." 

President Obama's special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, said yesterday that "the Sudanese government is no longer engaging in a 'coordinated' campaign of mass murder in Darfur, marking a shift in the U.S. characterization of the violence there as an 'ongoing genocide.'" "What we see is the remnants of genocide," Gration said. 

The White House told members of the President's Council on Bioethics last week that "their services were no longer needed" and they should cancel future meetings. The council, which was formed by President Bush to be "a philosophically leaning advisory group," will be replaced by a new bioethics commission with a mandate to offer "practical policy options."

And finally: Earlier this week, the State Department stepped in and asked Twitter to delay its planned maintenance, which would "avoid disrupting communications among tech-savvy Iranian citizens as they took to the streets to protest" the country's election results. Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commented on the move, saying, "We promote the right of free expression. I wouldn't know a twitter from a tweeter but apparently it is very important."

Blog Watch

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) plans to break the law.  

Finding commonality with the Iranian protesters, Republican Congressmen say they are victims of oppression.

Americans trust insurance companies to reform health care more than they trust Republicans in Congress.  

Iranian protesters wear black ribbons to mourn the dead.

Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) thinks global warming is "a good thing" for farmers.

Fox's Sean Hannity and Karl Rove lecture ABC on journalistic integrity.

Republican senators want to preserve the waste in public sector health care.

Keep up with the latest developments in the Iranian protests through Nico Pitney's liveblog.

Jane Mayer reports that the former CIA inspector general pushed for disclosure on interrogations.

Daily Grill

"And there was yet another project [the Lake Optima guard rail project] -- somebody dubbed it 'the guard rail to nowhere.' It's for a guard rail along a lonesome, desolate patch of highway by a waterless lake outside a town of 266 people -- $1.1 million. ... There is a lot of waste there."
-- Fox News's Bill Sammon, 6/16/09, criticizing the economic recovery plan

VERSUS

"Work on the Lake Optima guardrail project is not going forward as we explore other approaches to protecting public safety."
-- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 6/15/09