Evaluating Our Progress

Senior Officials Leading EPA's Open Gov Efforts
  • Barbara Bennett, Chief Financial Officer - leading quality of government spending information
  • Ann Dunkin, Chief Information Officer

OMB's December 8, 2009 Open Government Directive (PDF) (11 pp, 81 K, About PDF) establishes deadlines for action by each federal agency. Here's how EPA is progressing to meet those deadlines:

Deliverable: High-Value Data

Score: Meets

green checkmark

Rationale: By January 22, 2010, federal agencies were required to identify and publish online in an open format at least three high-value data sets and register those data sets via data.gov. EPA posted the high-value data sets by January 22, 2010. Overall, EPA has submitted over 600 raw data sets, tools, and geo-data to data.gov.

Deliverable: Data Integrity

Score: Meets

green checkmark

Rationale: Federal agencies were required to designate by January 22, 2010 a high-level senior official to be accountable for the quality and objectivity of, and internal controls over, publicly-disseminated federal spending information. On January 20, EPA designated its Chief Financial Officer Barbara Bennett as EPA's Senior Accountable Official.

Deliverable: Open Government Web Page

Score: Meets

green checkmark

Rationale: Federal agencies were required to create by February 6, 2010 an Open Government Web page to serve as the gateway for EPA activities related to the Open Government Directive. On February 3, EPA launched the Open Government site. This site serves as a portal to our Open Government activities and provides the public with an opportunity to provide input on EPA's efforts and Open Government Plan. It provides simple and direct access to high-value data sets, Freedom of Information Act information, and specific Open Government Directive efforts (e.g., Data.gov for high-value data sets and tools, Regulations.gov for participation in the rulemaking process).

Deliverable: Public Consultation

green checkmark

Score: Meets

  • Rationale: By February 6, 2010, federal agencies were required to incorporate a mechanism on the Open Government Web page to
    • provide input on the Agency's Open Government Plan,
    • provide input about which information to prioritize for publication, and
    • give feedback on assessment of the quality of published information.
    In addition, agencies were required to develop and staff a plan to respond to public input received on the Open Government Web page on a regular basis. On February 5, 2010, EPA launched our Open Government participation tool  (openepa.ideascale.com). This tool enables the public to suggest a new idea or vote and comment on other's ideas. Agency management and staff will review and summarize public input received on a bi-weekly basis and invite further comment on the most promising ideas.

Deliverable: Open Government Plan

green checkmark

Score: Meets

  • Rationale: By April 7, 2010, develop a plan for how the Agency will improve transparency and integrate public participation and collaboration into its activities. EPA conducted extensive public and employee engagement in developing, reviewing and updating our Open Government Plan, and published the plan at epa.gov/open on April 7.