Today, President Biden issued an Executive Order entitled Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government. I suspect that others will provide more substantive thoughts about the order’s various parts. Here, however, is the fact sheet if you want a summary and a list of the agencies involved. There is a lot in the EO but one of its major themes is improving online access. Implementing this order — especially implementing it well — will obviously require a great deal of sustained focus. But the EO is a first step.

The EO reminds of what the Administrative Conference of the United States has been up to.* This Thursday will be the plenary session of ACUS. One of the key themes there will also be how to best increase public access to agency materials. It is not a secret that the federal government can be complicated and hard to navigate, particularly for outsiders. It is important to recognize that fact and work in concrete ways to address it.

* Disclosure: Although I don’t speak for the agency, I am a public member of ACUS and chair the Administration and Management Committee.