“A Global Summer for CeRI”
Cornell Law School Spotlight
July 23, 2012
This summer the researchers of CeRI (the Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative) presented work, exchanged ideas, and received honors in a host of fora, both stateside and abroad. The variety of engagements filling CeRI’s dance card reflects the global significance of the initiative’s work to connect citizens and their governments through new technologies. Link to the full article: A Global Summer for CeRI
“Updated Agency Plans Show Path toward Culture of Openness”
OMB Watch
April 17, 2012
On April 9, numerous federal agencies released new versions of their Open Government Plans, detailing the activities they will undertake to bolster transparency and citizen participation. The latest versions are the second generation of plans; the original plans were published in 2010 in response to President Obama’s transparency memo and the administration’s Open Government Directive. Link to the full article: Updated Agency Plans Show Path toward Culture of Openness
“Coming Soon: Safety.Data.Gov, a Portal for All Federal Safety Data”
TechPresident
April 16, 2012
The federal Department of Transportation will take the lead on a new, federal-government-wide portal to safety data, it announced in a recent update to its Open Government Plan, which was first published in 2010. Link to the full article: Coming Soon: Safety.Data.Gov, a Portal for All Federal Safety Data
“January 9, 2012 Deadline to Submit Comments on DOT Web and Kiosk Regulation: How to File”
Law Office of Lainey Feingold
January 4, 2012
Alert: January 9, 2012 is the deadline to submit comments on the United States Department of Transportation’s pending airline web accessibility and kiosk regulations. In my earlier post about the positive and negative parts of the proposed regulations, I explained how comments could be filed on the “user-friendly” website called the Regulation Room. I recently discovered, however, that comments to the Regulation Room, while shared with the DOT, are not treated the same way by the DOT as comments submitted through the “official” Regulation.gov channel. And, because the official channel is not fully accessible, the federal government has an “optional submission form” that is more accessible. Optional? I thought federal government accessibility was mandatory? Link to the full article: January 9, 2012 Deadline to Submit Comments on DOT Web and Kiosk Regulation: How to File
Transparent Rulemaking
Washington Examiner.com
January 14, 2011
As the seat of the Federal Government, DC hosts all three branches of power. Congressional – to write laws, Supreme Court – to interpret and rule on laws, and Executive- to operationalize and apply laws. The first step for an Administrative agency to operationalize a law is to turn the language of the law into rules that can be implemented and enforced….A group at Cornell University, Cornell e- RulemakingInitiative (CeRI) has a pilot program called Regulation Room to illustrate and evaluate online rule making comments and issue discussion. The pilot system is hosted by Legal Information Institute (LII).
“The Race to the Top for Openness and Innovation:
Announcing Agency Open Government Plan Leading Practices”
White House Open Government Initiative
August 12, 2010
Four months ago, all cabinet departments demonstrated their commitment to building a government that is more transparent, participatory, and collaborative through the publication of detailed open government plans. (See, for example HHS or DOT’s posts about their plans) To hold the departments accountable, we published an online dashboard that assessed agency Open Government plans against the requirements of the Open Government Directive. We found that agencies were off to a good start. At the same time, we concluded that much more work was necessary to ensure effective implementation of these ambitious plans to make operations and data more transparent and expand opportunities for citizen participation, collaboration, and oversight…Today, we also announce the recipients of The Leading Practices Awards for achievement above and beyond the requirements of the Directive. These Awards recognize those agencies, as selected by their peers, that have outlined the best and most innovative strategies for promoting open government over the next two years. Link to the full article, The Race to the Top for Openness..
Airline passengers get a chance to be heard on proposed regulations
The Washington Post
July 11, 2010
If you’ve ever complained about air travel — and who hasn’t? — then here’s your best chance in a generation to do something about it. Tell the government what you think of its proposed new passenger rights rules. You can do it right now, thanks to a new project called Regulation Room (http:/
“U.S. Presses the Airlines to Satisfy the Traveler”
The New York Times
June 2, 2010
The Transportation Department signaled on Wednesday that it planned to be more aggressive in forcing airlines to address common traveler frustrations, proposing a wide range of consumer protections. They come on top of earlier rules limiting how much time passengers can sit on planes on the tarmac..As part of an effort to increase participation in agency rule-making, Cornell’s RegulationRoom.org Web site lets travelers choose an issue and post their opinions. One topic the department is soliciting feedback on is dealing with passengers who have severe peanut allergies. It offered several options, including prohibiting airlines from serving peanuts or requiring carriers to create a peanut-free zone. “What we’re really trying to do is lower the barriers to participation,” said Cynthia Farina, a professor at Cornell Law School who is working on the university’s rule-making initiative for the Web. Link to full article, U.S. Presses the Airlines to Satisfy the Traveler.
“Scholars look to increase research on open government”
NextGov
March 01, 2010
The practice of disclosing government data in a way that is meaningful to the public and holds the government accountable could become a growing area of scholarly interest, partly because the Obama administration’s interest in the subject has made research funding easier to obtain, some academics said. Link to full article, Scholars look to…