Issue One joins more than 40 organizations calling on Biden Administration to prioritize transparency

Issue One today joined more than 40 organizations calling for the Biden administration to prioritize and increase transparency and openness, asserting that “disclosure, candor, and accessibility should be the default operating mode of our government.”

“Transparency is foundational to a government of the people, by the people, for the people. The right to know what our government is up to is also one of the most fundamental checks and balances in our system of government — one that depends on the preservation of relevant information and public access to it,” states the letter, which was sent to the White House and President Joe Biden today. 

“As our country’s history has shown us time and time again, when government secrecy proliferates, so do civil liberties violations and obstacles to democratic accountability. That is why we call on you to embrace open government as one of your administration’s most important priorities and one of the most consequential legacies that your presidency could bequeath to future generations,” the letter continues. 

Led by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the letter calls on government officials to implement public records statutes in accordance with the law and advocates for new FOIA guidelines that prioritize transparency and the public interest, in addition to other major reforms designed to improve public access and government accountability.

Read the full letter here.

The full list of signatories of this letter are as follows:

American Civil Liberties Union

Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University

American Immigration Council

American Oversight

Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic

Campaign Legal Center

Center for Constitutional Rights

Center for Media and Democracy

Center for Responsive Politics

Civil Rights and Transparency Clinic, University at Buffalo School of Law

Common Cause

Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic

Defending Rights & Dissent

Demand Progress

Digital Democracy Project

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Electronic Privacy Information Center

Essential Information

Good Government Now

Good Jobs First

Government Accountability Project

Immigrant Legal Resource Center

International Documentary Association

International Refugee Assistance Project

Issue One

Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health

Mainers for Accountable Leadership

Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic

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Michigan State University First Amendment Law Clinic

National Coalition Against Censorship

National Freedom of Information Coalition

National Immigration Law Center

National Immigration Litigation Alliance

National Security Archive

New Media Rights

Open The Government

PEN America

Project On Government Oversight

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Society of Professional Journalists

TechFreedom

The FOIA Project

Union of Concerned Scientists