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Background on the Ten Most Wanted Project
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Senator John McCain (R-AZ) introduces CDT and OMB Watch's 10 Most Wanted
Report and thanks Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and CDT Executive Director
Jerry Berman for their work to get more information on the Internet.
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The Ten Most Wanted Government Documents initiative is the result of a series of discussions among the Center for Democracy and Technology, OMB Watch, the Administration and Congressional staff about the failure of many government agencies to place information online despite requirements to do so. These discussions identified a general policy failure, but the participants wanted to demonstrate how this policy failure affects the daily lives of Americans by limiting their access to specific categories of vital information that should be online but aren’t. We believed that the best way to capture the scale and scope of the problem was to put a call out to activists, advocates, watchdog groups, reporters, researchers, librarians, government employees, and ordinary citizens asking for their help in identifying information that was missing in action. We thought this would be the most powerful method of demonstrating the public impact of this government information policy failure.
The public's response surpassed our expectations. We received hundreds of responses from citizens, journalists, researchers, and activists hungry for online access to information. We also received comments praising the efforts of several federal agencies that make information available to the public online. Thus, we decided to also highlight the work of five agencies that are expanding the public's right to know. While no agency is perfect, these agencies provide models and examples of the innovative methods the Internet offers to promote public access to information.
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Senator Leahy discusses agency failures in complying with the E-FOIA
amendments of 1996.
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Based on the public's responses and conversations with various agencies, we developed a set of policy recommendations to improve access to government information online.
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