Ethics

Obama orders more transparency in government

By Ed Brayton

So far, Obama has taken some important steps. He's issued an executive order rescinding a Bush order that mandated more secrecy in government:

Barack Obama's first acts as president included signing three orders today that could open public access to documents and records that had been closed off during the Bush administration.

Obama reversed George W. Bush's restrictions on access to records of former presidents. He also told the Justice Department to write new guidance to agencies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to improve transparency, and gave top officials in his administration four months to create a new "Open Government Directive" that he said would go beyond the requirements of the open records law.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on January 26, 2009 (boomark / email).