Hope and Fail

Holding a closed-door meeting on open government

How’s this for irony: The White House is holding a workshop to discuss transparency and open government … behind closed doors.

From the Associated Press:

It’s hardly the image of transparency the Obama administration wants to project: A workshop on government openness is closed to the public.

The event Monday for federal employees is a fitting symbol of President Barack Obama’s uneven record so far on the Freedom of Information Act, a big part of keeping his campaign promise to make his administration the most transparent ever. As Obama’s first year in office ends, the government’s actions when the public and press seek information are not yet matching up with the president’s words.

Indeed. Obama made a big deal about transparency during the 2008 campaign and at the beginning of his term. On his first full day in office, the president issued a memo to the heads of federal agencies outlining his new policies on transparency:

All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA.

The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government. Disclosure should be timely.

So the federal government is to, by default, side on the side of transparency. So why not hold a meeting on open government … out in the open?

The Associated Press reports that the meeting will focus on FOIA requests, according to Melanie Ann Pustay, director of the Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy.

As for the reasons it’s closed to the media and the public:

Pustay said she planned to say the same things at the private workshop that she would say publicly. She offered these reasons to explain why it was closed: She wanted government employees to be able to speak candidly, and the conference would be in an auditorium at the Commerce Department, where she said a government ID was required to be admitted. The AP and others news organizations routinely enter government buildings to cover the government.

If government employees speaking candidly is something to be hidden from the public, then why aren’t Robert Gibbs and Joe Biden on permanent lock-down? And can’t the Commerce Department allow reporters into its secret auditorium just this once, for the meeting about transparency?