DHS Issues its Open Government Plan
The Department of Homeland Security has released its Open Government Plan to enhance transparency, public participation, and collaboration as part of the Administration’s Open Government Initiative. The plan, which is part of DHS’s effort to utilize public feedback to better share information, calls for reducing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request backlogs, maintaining an open dialogue with the public, and expanding its Virtual USA1 framework.
DHS will accept online comments on the plan from April 30 -- May 10, 2010 through an online too. The same tool was used to solicit comments from the public during the plan drafting process.
The following are highlights of the plan:
DHS Acting to Reduce FOIA Backlog
Over the past four years, DHS has reduced the backlog of FOIA requests 81% (from 98,103 to 18,918). The majority of the backlog FOIA requests in 2009 were requests for information from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. For example, DHS received 71,429 requests for USCIS in 2009. 16,801 were backlogged at the end of the fiscal year.
By comparison, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) received 14,804 FOIA requests in 2009 and 88 were backlogged at the end of the fiscal year.
Goal to reduce backlog by 10% per year. To reduce the DHS FOIA request backlog by 10% per year, each DHS agency receives a monthly goal setting the number of requests to be processed in that month. The goals are specific to each agency and are based on the average number FOIA requests the agency receives each month.
(DHS proactively provides information on the FOIA request process on a FOIA website. In addition to providing information on the FOIA process, the website has links for electronically submitting FOIA requests to speed their processing and contact information for questions regarding the process.)
Public Dialogue to Increase through Use of Social Media
DHS uses “Web 2.0” social media technologies and web sites to provide information to the public. DHS will use an online public engagement tool to conduct discussions, coordinate the use of new media tools among federal agencies during emergencies, and will host blogger roundtables to better engage online journalists. DHS also plans to use DHS blogs to better respond to current events, increasing public engagement through its blog posts.
Expansion of vUSA Will Improve Cross-Agency Information
Expansion of the DHS vUSA initiative will improve the amount of cross-agency information that is available to first responders and government units responding to emergencies.
1Virtual USA (vUSA) was launched on December 8, 2009 by DHS Secretary Napolitano. vUSA is an information-sharing initiative that draws on practitioner input to help federal, state, local, and tribal first responders collaborate to make fast, well-informed decisions. The vUSA program provides real time access to operational information (such as weather conditions, traffic, fuel supplies, etc.) to improve situational awareness and emergency response.
DHS press release dated 4/7/10 on Open Government Plan available at http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1270662888919.shtm.
DHS Open Government Plan document dated 4/7/10 available at http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/dhs_open_government_plan.pdf.
Comments may be submitted on the Open Government Plan at https://openhomelandsecurity.ideascale.com/.