You are browsing the archives of December 2009.

The US House of Representatives recently uploaded the latest quarterly Statement of Disbursements to its website, marking the first time these public records have been made available online. These reports detail how Members spent their Member’s Representational Allowance over the past quarter.

Yesterday, the White House released a directive with instructions and deadlines for executive departments and agencies for implementing the goals set forth in President Obama’s January 21 Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. It lists specific plans to be completed in time frames ranging from 45 to 120 days.

Today’s New York Times includes an in interesting article discussing how municipal governments are starting to release obscure public records datasets to Internet and software developers. These programmers are finding new applications for the data, and creating websites that make the information more useable and interesting to the general population.

When responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, sometimes agencies provide unsatisfactory or untimely responses. In such cases, start by evaluating the basis of the denial and then move toward making an appeal of the agency determination.