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.
It is in the interests of the United States to appropriately protect information that needs to be protected while maintaining our participation in new discoveries to maintain our competitive advantage.
The question is not whether the capital exists (it does!), nor whether energy solutions are available (they are!), but whether we can align energy finance quickly enough to channel the right types of capital where and when it’s needed most.
Our analysis of federal AI governance across administrations shows that divergent compliance procedures and uneven institutional capacity challenge the government’s ability to deploy AI in ways that uphold public trust.
From California to New Jersey, wildfires are taking a toll—costing the United States up to $424 billion annually and displacing tens of thousands of people. Congress needs solutions.