In his first day in office, President Barack Obama took a major step toward, as he called it, a "new era of openness" in government, reversing restrictive policies of the Bush administration that prevented the release of information.

In a Presidential memorandum, Obama said there would now be a presumption that government records requested under FOIA should be released. He directed the Attorney General to prepare new FOIA guidelines in line with the policy.

"Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known," Obama said.

The other memorandum focuses on transparency and public involvement.

"Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing," Obama wrote. "My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public."

Obama also issued an executive order that would require the disclosure of more presidential records, again reversing the changes under to the Presidential Records Act under the Bush administration.

The irony is that only the executive order were available on the White House Web site as of early Thursday morning. But the full text of the documents can be found

here

-- RG