WASHINGTON—Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Wednesday released the following statement on Sunshine Week, which aims to highlight the importance of government openness and transparency.
“Sunshine Week is a welcome opportunity to remind taxpayers and officials at all levels of government that openness, transparency, and accountability deserve equal consideration as the government goes about its business. Eight years ago, then-Senator Conrad Burns and I authored and Congress passed the E-Government Act, which helped spur federal agencies to make documents and services more accessible to the general public over the Internet. Since then, I have worked to make Congressional Research Service materials more accessible to the public and court documents accessible to the public without fees. I have worked to ease restrictions on the release of Presidential papers and have actively sought to increase transparency in the spending of American Reinvestment and Recovery Act dollars. The Obama Administration has become a leading force behind government transparency, but we still have a long way to go before government takes full advantage of available information technologies to maximize not just the transparency, participation and collaboration of people with their government, but also to maximize management efficiency.
“I look forward to working with the Administration to continue working toward these goals.”
-30-