Many of the most substantive and significant documents generated by the Obama Administration to date are surprisingly absent from the White House web site.
President Obama recently ordered the reorganization of the National Security Council through a Presidential Policy Directive. But the unclassified Directive is not even mentioned on the White House web site, much less posted there. Secrecy News obtained a copy of the signed directive PPD-1 (pdf).
Another directive, Presidential Study Directive-1, mandated a review of the organization of homeland security and counterterrrorism activities. Its existence is likewise unreflected on the White House web site. A signed copy is here (pdf).
A new White House report on the interdiction of aircraft engaged in drug trafficking is similarly unmentioned on the White House web site. It was published by the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is available here (pdf).
The White House web site does notify Americans that the First Lady visited Miriam’s Kitchen last week to help feed the homeless, which is good to know. But its web page about the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board does not provide meaningful information about the Board, not even a list of members.
In short, the current White House web site does not present a reliable or complete record of Presidential actions or activities. For that, one still has to turn elsewhere.
Rather than get caught up in the buzzword flavor of the month, the policymaking ecosystem should study what’s actually working.
The U.S. does not lack ideas for improving its transportation system. What it needs is a research ecosystem capable of turning those ideas into deployed solutions.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is excited to announce that Kumar Garg and Matt Lira are joining the organization’s Board of Directors.
A cohesive strategy to achieve two goals: (1) deploy the clean energy and grid upgrades necessary to make energy affordable and combat climate change and (2) create governments that tangibly improve peoples’ lives.