Sunshine Week

Congress A-Twitter Over Online Rules

The Sunlight Foundation has launched the "Let Our Congress Tweet" project urging Congress to reconsider rules against members posting to third-party Web sites, such as Twitter.

As an article in Ars Technica explained, there's been a debate in the House of Representatives over rules that prohibit members from posting to any service other than the house.gov domain. Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.) has proposed easing the regulation to allow posting to sites where the content will not be alongside commercial or political messages, the primary reason such action is currently disallowed.

Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.), said he has been "using this new technology this past May, and have since been communicating with the public in real time through text messaging and live video streamed directly to the Internet…. I have been able to answer questions, take suggestions from the public and become more accountable in my day-to-day undertakings in Washington. I am the first to personally send a text message (through Twitter.com) on the House floor, soliciting YOUR input on current legislation."

"I have suddenly found myself on the front lines of a worthwhile campaign to open up Congress to every kind of communication on these new media outlets," he added. "This has happened spontaneously and naturally, which makes it even more interesting and meaningful because this story demonstrates the speed and power of these new media outlets.

"These new tools truly have the power to put We the People in every room in Washington, D. C.

"Congress urgently needs more sunshine," Culberson noted. "The House rules must be changed to give Members of Congress full unfettered access to new media in the same way we are given full unfettered access to old media."

To learn more about the issue, go to the Sunlight Foundation's "Let Our Congress Tweet" site, read the Ars Technica article, or visit Culberson's Web site.

Letters on Open Government Published Online

Sunshine Week and PublishaLetter.com — a new Web site that helps people submit letters to the editors of newspapers around the world — have partnered to give the public an opportunity to write letters in an online round-table about open government issues.

Unlike the other submissions to PublishaLetter.com, this is not a typical letter to the editor process, but instead will operate as an online forum dedicated to open government. Letters will be linked under a special "Sunshine Week" icon for PublishaLetter.com readers, and there also will be a link from the Sunshine Week Web site.

PublishaLetter.com was founded to enable people to not only more easily comment on news issues, but also to post those letters online regardless of whether they are published elsewhere. While the site does not edit the content, it does screen for mass mailings, commercial offerings, gratuitous self-promotion, libel and similarly inappropriate content. To write a letter to the editor of a publication, users must go through the regular PublishaLetter.com submission process.

To get started, follow the links on the PublishaLetter.com home page, or click here to submit a letter or click here to read current postings.

Winning Essay on Candidates' Medical Records Selected

Dorothy Skinner is the winner of the Sunshine Week Citizen Journalism Award for June for her essay posted on Helium.com addressing the issue of whether presidential candidates should be required to release their medical records.

Skinner's essay got right to it, opening with: "Perhaps the question should be why shouldn't they?"

Recognizing there is a reasonable balance between medical privacy and the right to know, Skinner noted, "Everyone deserves a private life but when someone puts himself in the public eye to attain the highest possible position of power and authority, that person must be open to public scrutiny."

Skinner's winning essay is available on the Helium Web site. Additional writings on the topic of candidate's medical records from other essayists also are online.

The July essay contest, which closes Aug. 12, asks writers to ponder whether the government has a role in overseeing the results of federally funded science or if the public has the right to view such information unfiltered.

Get LinkedIn to Sunshine Week

The newest way to show your commitment to open government and Freedom of Information is by joining the Sunshine Week group on the social networking site LinkedIn.

Joining the group will introduce you to other members with similar interests, enabling additional outreach and contact opportunities using the LinkedIn social network.

Click here to begin.

Missed Opportunities for FOIA Improvement Highlighted in New CJOG Report

A new report from the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, issued on the eve of the 42nd anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, found that federal agencies and departments have made little, if any, progress in responding to FOIA requests, despite an executive order to improve service.

The report, "An Opportunity Lost," analyzed the FOIA performance of 25 federal agencies and departments. What it found was in stark contrast to a June report from the Justice Department that cited "remarkable improvements."

"The Justice Department analysis was based on the agencies' own performance goals," explained CJOG Coordinator Pete Weitzel. "The CJOG report used the agencies' own congressionally mandated FOIA response reports, which we believe is a truer test of actual performance in handling requests."

Several agencies did achieve significant backlog reductions, but overall, the CJOG analysis suggested, the principal factor in bringing down the backlog was a sharp decline in new requests, taking substantial pressure off the agencies. In 2007 the agencies reviewed received the fewest new requests since reporting began in 1998.

The CJOG analysis found reductions in FOIA personnel and spending, fewer information grants and lengthy delays. One area that saw quicker response time was administrative appeals: the majority of agencies responding to such appeals said "no" more quickly.

The complete CJOG study, including a variety of tables showing both full 2007 results and comparisons by reporting categories, can be found at www.cjog.net.