OGP nations elect USA to OGP Steering Committee, despite US government acting "contrary to process"

[Alexander Howard]

Hello all -- apologies for any cross-posting.

Despite the Trump White House & Biden White House both acting "contrary to process" with respect to their governance around the United States government's engagement with Americans around the Open Government Partnership since 2017 in the last 2 cycles – which the Independent Review Mechanism still hasn't reported, much sanctioned – folks voted to add the USA to the Open Government Partnership's steering committee.

https://www.opengovpartnership.org/about/who-we-are/steering-committee/2023-government-steering-committee-elections/

It appears the lack of negative headlines – any headlines, really – regarding the White House's opaque co-creation process in 2022 and its submission of a weak 5th national action plan that simply repackaged existing administration programs, policies, & orders  while excluding key civil society priorities from good governance organizations on the core reforms that the OGP IRM has recommended for a decade has led other nations to conclude that the US government is in sufficiently good standing to be an international leader again.

If the US government can act contrary to process in 2 co-creation cycles over 5 years & still be able to join OGP what does it mean for OGP's standards for open government & the relevance of the IRM, which has been silent on White House openwashing since 2019?

For the folks who haven't been paying close attention, there is still a 404 on open government at this White House: wh.gov/open and the Offices of the Press Secretary, Public Engagement, and Management and Budget continues to act as if OGP, related commitments, programs, and relevant statutes don't exist.

open.usa.gov was updated in December 2022 with a link to a press release from OSTP. The Department of Justice referenced OGP in its Sunshine Week event – where OIP celebrated meeting a pre-existing "commitment" that it was working on prior to the OGP workshops. Unlike during the Obama-era, the White House remained silent about the importance of FOIA, sunshine in government, and public access to information.

Look back to January 2022 and then review the past 15 months of silence, inaction, and weak follow-through: is this a government that's acting as an international leader on open government?

https://twitter.com/digiphile/status/1483818046452113410

The OGP secretariat, leadership, IRM, steering committee, and participating nations should expect the USA to set a higher bar and hold the US government accountable for adhering to it, not reward multiple administrations for opacity, secrecy, overclassification, and poor implementation.

[Alexander Howard]

It is disappointing but not surprising that there has been no response from OGP nor broader dialog among members about what it means for the US to be elected back to the Steering Committee despite acting "contrary to process" for years during the Trump administration and then acting contrary to process during the first two years of the Biden administration.

The US government's 5th National Action Plan, released over the holidays in December with no press conference is a grab-bag of pre-existing administration priorities, policies and orders that do not reflect the priorities of US civil society, as expressed in the open government coalition: https://BlueprintForAccountability.us

The commitments were not co-created. The consultation failed the publicity metric. OGP's IRM has issued no new report since 2019, failing to hold the US government accountable for official misinformation and corruption under President Trump and then allowing the Biden White House to openwash with commitments that reflect what it was already doing.

The state of open government in the USA should be discussed on stage at the Summit this fall, not ignored.

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Alexander B. Howard

Director, Digital Democracy Project | governing.digital

E-PluribusUnum.org | @OpenGov

410.849.9808 | @digiphile | He / him