EPA's open government efforts begin with public

The Environmental Protection Agency is asking for the public to help it comply with an Obama administration directive to make government operations more open and transparent.

EPA has created a special website through which people can submit and vote on ideas for how the agency can solicit more feedback from the public, improve the quality and availability of information posted online and work better with groups inside and outside government. Ideas will be accepted until March 19.

EPA will use the suggestions to help write its first-ever Open Government Plan, said Linda Travers, EPA’s principal deputy assistant administrator, in an Feb. 10 e-mail to members of EPA’s list serve. All agencies have until April 7 to publish these plans, which are roadmaps for how agencies will comply with the open government principles President Obama laid out in a December memorandum.