OMB to Agencies: Documentation, Please

Government-watchers will get a boost this year from an Office of Management and Budget directive that requires agencies to post the documentation behind their budget requests online. A paragraph in OMB’s annual guidance on budget preparation, Circular A-11, requires that within two weeks of their transmittal to Congress -- by Feb. 19 -- an agency’s full congressional budget justification materials must be posted on the Web. Labor Department CIO Pat Pizzella warned feds at this morning’s Government Performance Summit in Washington to expect that advocates and others with specific expertise will be going over the documents with a fine-toothed comb, and will quickly pick up on any mistakes. But OMB management chief Clay Johnson, who has previously welcomed bloggers’ ability to focus attention on federal issues, simply said of the change: “Transparency is good.”--Jenny Mandel