Before I do, I want to also restate your first point, which is.... I think we have to understand—at least, it's my personal belief—that open government and transparency are tools for a purpose. They are not solely solutions. They are tools to strengthen democracy, to empower people. There are a whole range of tools. I think one of the key ones is accountability.
The reason I give this preface is because I think it relates to the second point of your question. Under the Open Government Directive, which is really the vehicle by which agencies are trying to do the voluntary disclosure model, it is left totally to the agencies what they put out to the public. It's very important to do this. I'm not diminishing the value of this, but they tend to move more towards what I'll call mission-driven disclosure. For example, at our Environmental Protection Agency, they will put out more data about pollution. At Transportation, they'll put out more information about highway issues or other kinds of transportation issues. That is very essential.
By the same token, they have not put out very much information around transparency within their own agency, that is, to bring greater accountability to the agency itself. How is the agency working? Is spending influenced by special interests? Are we going to get disclosure of government contracts to know whether or not the contracts are really properly being executed? Those kinds of issues are being left undone. Inspector General reports are not disclosed regularly. Communications with our Congress are not. Schedules of our high-level officials are not. There is a range of these kinds of accountability issues that are central to making a government that is trusted by its populace.
That's what I was really trying to drive at—that we need multiple kinds of openness. For that reason, the public interest community has come together over the last year or so to create a set of standards that we think all agencies must follow—every agency, not just one versus another. That standard is going to evolve. As you all looked at our standard, you'd probably say why isn't X part of that? That's fine. That's part of a process. That's great.