Open the Government  – 40 Advocacy Organizations & Experts Release Accountability 2021 Reform Agenda for Biden Administration – “The Accountability 2021 effort recognizes that the President has the power to create a government that is both responsive to and representative of the public—and demands that whoever sits in the Oval Office take steps to do so…The Accountability 2021 effort recognizes that the president has the power to create a more accountable government and demands that whoever sits in the Oval Office take steps to do so. By encouraging agencies to use compliance mechanisms, hiring qualified personnel and requesting budgets sufficient to ensure agencies can fulfill their mandates, the president can rebuild an ecosystem where regulations actually have the ability to protect the public interest. No single effort can remedy all of the ways our democratic institutions fail the people they are supposed to serve. However, if the president takes steps outlined here (and urges Congress to codify many of these recommendations), he can progress towards creating a government of, by, and for the people.

The Accountability 2021 recommendations are guided by eighteen core principles that fall into broad categories that reflect much of what is necessary to create a responsive government: Open Government, Ethics, Balance of Power, Whistleblowers, Responsive Government, and Pandemic Preparedness and Response. Recognizing that the president will face the continuing fallout of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Accountability 2021 contributors added Pandemic Preparedness and Response as a sixth category in need of accountability reform.