EDITORIAL: Make all public documents available online

It's seldom easy getting government agencies to make their documents public. Just ask President Barack Obama, who is trying, but meeting with inertia. Then there's a second hurdle: Even when they somehow do become public, they can end up hidden uselessly in some dusty warehouse.

Now Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) proposes to change at least the warehouse part by creating a new equation: Public equals online. His Public Online Information Act would be a useful next step to the Freedom of Information Act. It would require all executive branch agencies to make all public documents - with a few commonsense exceptions - readily available through the Internet, in a format easily searchable by citizens.

On his second day in office, Obama made clear that he wanted government to be more transparent. But a recent report by the National Security Archive, a group that publishes documents made available through the Freedom of Information Act, found that only 13 of 90 agencies had moved meaningfully toward compliance.

If even a president with Obama's commitment to transparency can't get fast results, imagine what would happen under a president more inclined to secrecy. Israel's bill would set in law a standard of transparency that would continue, no matter who is president. It wouldn't change the process of making documents public, but it would change the definition of public. That would be a big step into the sunlight. hN