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In the spring of 2006, two natural enemies, one a conservative, the other a liberal, came together to co- sponsor the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. The bill was signed into law by President Bush in the Fall of 2006.

The priorities of a government that thinks transparency is a good thing: Citizen involvement, accountability, freedom of information, dissemination of information, ease of access

Transparency without citizen involvement is like a corvette missing its engine, useless. At this moment we seem to have two large demographics in the U.S.. One group doesn't vote and aren't involved in any part of the political process. The other group votes but doesn't care much about what happens after they vote. They are only heard from four years later. The goal of transparency should include massive citizen involvement.

Citizen involvement can be put on fast forward by not only telling the citizenry about USAspending.gov, but how to use the information about grants and contracts that the site contains. Give an absolutely focused effort to educate the people how Washington actually works. Why bother with the work of transparency if no one knows that it exists?

Accountability is nothing more than stating the goals of the program. Who is in charge of getting us to the end, and then changing strategies if the current one is not working. If the information is available to millions of American eyeballs, it is easier to notice when something is out of line. Stop hiding the fact that something isn't working.

The Freedom of Information Act almost needs its own private overseer for a short time in order to restore its ability to allow access to government information. When some groups of people are allowed to hoard information under the protective umbrella of "need to know," instead of "right to know," the country can no longer say that it is an informed populace. How can decisions possibly be made without knowing the facts?

Dissemination of information is critical to the process. Rather than putting everything about a bill on a website after it has passed and therefore nothing can be done about it, everything needs to be posted beforehand. Who sponsored the bill? Who lobbied for the bill and what are their connections to the industry that profits most when the bill passes? Give enough information that allows people to understand the entire story, not just the story that will allow the bill to be ushered thru Congress.

Ease of accessing this information will have to be carefully thought out. It's not enough to say "We will put all the information on the government website." Some people don't have internet access. Certain rural areas and low income citizens rely only on television and newspapers.

The only obstacle that should be in the way of that data is the desire of the person looking for it.

Resources:

www.blog.sunlight foundation.org
http://www.huffi ngtonpost.com/sarah-granger

www .fcw.com

http://change.gov/

Learn more about this author, Gary Allen.
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