Starting in October, many federal agency reports that were previously available only to members of Congress will be available to the public.
The Office of Management and Budget issued detailed guidance and timelines on Wednesday telling ministries how to implement the Access to Congressional Mandate Reports Act, which Congress passed in December. Beginning October 16, whenever an agency produces a legally mandated report to Congress, it must also send it to Congress.
Starting in October, many federal agency reports that were previously available only to members of Congress will be available to the public.
The Office of Management and Budget issued detailed guidance and timelines on Wednesday telling ministries how to implement the Access to Congressional Mandate Reports Act, which Congress passed in December. Beginning October 16, whenever a government agency produces a legally mandated report to Congress, it will ask the Government Press Office to host the report on the new publicly accessible web portal GPO Building. must be sent.
However, there are some very large exceptions. Under this law and new OMB guidance, government agencies will no longer be required to publicly release reports submitted to the Appropriations, Armed Services and Intelligence committees of the House and Senate. Intelligence community agencies are also fully exempt from this law, as are reports on IT security and “law enforcement sensitive” matters.
In addition, government agencies continue to have discretion not to publish reports to the GPO Portal, especially if they contain sensitive personal information.
“In general, no agency shall construe this Act as requiring disclosure of any information, record, or report exempted from public disclosure by virtue of—” [the Privacy Act]OMB Director Shalanda Young and GPO Director Hugh Halpern wrote in a note Wednesday. “Government agencies are responsible for reviewing congressional-mandated reports prior to submission for publication on the GPO Submission Portal for purposes of identifying and compiling information and records. There is no affirmative obligation to review the report for these purposes.”
The new guidance tells all federal agencies to designate specific points of content to ensure reports are uploaded to the GPO’s GovInfo platform. Beginning October 1, you will need to register an account on the GPO’s new reporting portal. Under the law, reports must be submitted to the portal within 30 days of being sent to Congress, but within 60 days of submission. sent to parliament.
The OMB Directive also emphasizes accessibility and discoverability. Each document must use open data standards and contain searchable text and specific metadata describing the report and the specific legislation requiring it. The GPO said it would reject documents that come in proprietary formats, are platform dependent, or are not searchable.
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Starting in October, many federal agency reports that were previously available only to members of Congress will be available to the public. The Office of Management and Budget issued detailed guidance and timelines on Wednesday telling ministries how to implement the Access to Congressional Mandate Reports Act, which Congress passed in December. Beginning October 16, whenever an agency produces a legally mandated report to Congress, it must also send it to Congress.read moreStarting in October, many federal agency reports that were previously available only to members of Congress will be available to the public.
The Office of Management and Budget issued detailed guidance and timelines on Wednesday telling ministries how to implement the Access to Congressional Mandate Reports Act, which Congress passed in December. Beginning October 16, whenever a government agency produces a legally mandated report to Congress, it will ask the Government Press Office to host the report on the new publicly accessible web portal GPO Building. must be sent.
However, there are some very large exceptions. Under this law and new OMB guidance, government agencies will no longer be required to publicly release reports submitted to the Appropriations, Armed Services and Intelligence committees of the House and Senate. Intelligence community agencies are also fully exempt from this law, as are reports on IT security and “law enforcement sensitive” matters.
In addition, government agencies continue to have discretion not to publish reports to the GPO Portal, especially if they contain sensitive personal information.
“In general, no agency shall construe this Act as requiring disclosure of any information, record, or report exempted from public disclosure by virtue of—” [the Privacy Act]OMB Director Shalanda Young and GPO Director Hugh Halpern wrote in a note Wednesday. “Government agencies are responsible for reviewing congressional-mandated reports prior to submission for publication on the GPO Submission Portal for purposes of identifying and compiling information and records. There is no affirmative obligation to review the report for these purposes.”
The new guidance tells all federal agencies to designate specific points of content to ensure reports are uploaded to the GPO’s GovInfo platform. Beginning October 1, you will need to register an account on the GPO’s new reporting portal. Under the law, reports must be submitted to the portal within 30 days of being sent to Congress, but within 60 days of submission. sent to parliament.
The OMB Directive also emphasizes accessibility and discoverability. Each document must use open data standards and contain searchable text and specific metadata describing the report and the specific legislation requiring it. The GPO said it would reject documents that come in proprietary formats, are platform dependent, or are not searchable.
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/management/2023/06/agencies-to-start-implementing-transparency-law-for-congressional-reports-in-october/ Government Agencies Begin Enforcement of Transparency in Congressional Reports Act in October