The Top Stories of 2023
We’ve compiled our choice of the top five developments in open government news in 2023. Starting December 22, we’ll be updating this page daily until we reach #1.
#1: Coming December 26
#2: Coming December 25
#3: Coming December 24
#4: Coming December 23
#5: Is digitization ahead for D.C. government records?
The D.C. Council has signaled that the 21st century has arrived in District government records management. The significant step came in the April budget report from the Committee on Executive Administration and Labor with spending and policy directions for the fiscal year that began October 1, 2023.
The committee directed the Office of the Secretary, the D.C. agency that sets government-wide records policy and manages the D.C. Archives, to “initiate and commence the digitization of all Agency records across the District government.” The office wields real incentives, as it can eventually decline to accept for storage any more paper records. The committee also asked the Office of Open Government to “study and make recommendations to the District government regarding best practices for developing record digitalization procedures.” (The technology office seems out of the loop, and has lacked a permanent head since March.)
The scale of the effort necessary is suggested by the lengthy process now under way at the federal level. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and Office of Management and Budget capped 10 years of planning with a 2019 directive. It gave federal agencies three years to go paperless (and when the archives would begin turning away paper records). The COVID pandemic and related work disruptions intervened and a new directive in 2022 re-set the federal agency deadline as June 2024. Funds for federal agency IT improvements were included in the American Rescue Plan and a Technology Modernization Fund.
The Coalition has proposed a Government Information and Technology Commission to review related D.C. laws and budgeting and looks forward to working with the D.C. Government—executive and legislative together–to advance digital progress in the District. Huge FOIA delays are common — in 2021-22, the last year with complete data, 4,800 agency responses to records requests (almost 40 percent of the 12,200 processed) were late, beyond the 15-day deadline, with more than half beyond 26 days. The 1,800 still unanswered as FY22 ended in September had waited an average of 50 days and some over 300. Finding and releasing records to the public should leap forward with D.C. digitization. As the 2022 federal order said, it’s “critical that [ ] agencies move beyond paper-based processes and embrace the opportunities afforded to improve government by transitioning fully to an electronic environment,” especially to “increase the ability of the public to engage with Government in new and more efficient and effective ways.”
Keep up with D.C. open government news and Coalition actions by checking back often at https://dcogc.org/blog. You can support the work with a donation here.