How We’re Changing the Way We Respond to Petitions

[Sunlei]

?itok=1e8LuPoX
President Barack Obama signs S. 517, Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, in the Oval Office, Aug. 1, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)


The Right to Petition is a Constitutional Right

In its final clause, the First Amendment of the Constitution protects the right of the American people “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” It’s right up there along religion, speech, press, and assembly.

Yet while it guarantees the right to petition, the First Amendment doesn’t explain how to petition or what the government owes in response. Over the years, many people have petitioned the government by sending written letters to the White House and Congress, asking for assistance and expressing grievances on a variety of issues. For example, in 1897, Native Hawaiians who petitioned Congress were successful in temporarily blocking the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands. And in 1874, suffragette Susan B. Anthony petitioned Congress to remit a fine imposed on her after she was arrested for casting a vote in the 1872 election in Rochester, New York.

In 2011 (years before I arrived at the White House) the team here developed a petitions platform called We the People. It provided a clear and easy way for the American people to petition their government — along with a threshold for action. Namely — once a petition gains 100,000 signatures.

This was a new system for the United States government, announced as a flagship effort in the first U.S. Open Government National Action Plan. Right now it exists only for the White House (Hey, Congress! We have an open API! Get in touch!) Some other countries, including Germany and the United Kingdom, do online petitions, too. In fact, the European Parliament has even started its own online petitioning platform.

For the most part, we’ve been pretty good about responding — before today, the Obama Administration had responded to 255 petitions that had collectively gathered more than 11 million signatures. That’s more than 91 percent of the petitions that have met our threshold requiring a response. Some responses have taken a little longer than others. But now, I’m happy to say, we have caught up.

We’re going to be changing a few things about We the People.

1.First, from now on, if a petition meets the signature goal within a designated period of time, we will aim to respond to it  —  with an update or policy statement — within 60 days wherever possible. You can read about the details of our policy in the We the People Terms of Participation.

2.Second, other outside petitions platforms are starting to tap into the We the People platform. We're excited to announce today that Change.org is choosing to integrate with the We the People platform, meaning the future signatures of its 100 million users will count toward the threshold for getting an official response from the Administration. We’re also opening up the code behind petitions.whitehouse.gov on Drupal.org and GitHub, which empowers other governments and outside organizations to create their own versions of this platform to engage their own citizens and constituencies.

3.Third, and most importantly, the process of hearing from us about your petition is going to look a little different. We’ve assembled a team of people responsible for taking your questions and requests and bringing them to the right people  —  whether within the White House or in an agency within the Administration  —  who may be in a position to say something about your request.

read more here, read all the petition answers here and start your own petition here. and chat today with President Obama, info here LINK to WH-

https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/07/28/how-we-are-changing-way-we-respond-petitions

[MineralMan]

1. Petitions that are within the power of the Executive Branch to implement

are the best petitions for petitions to the White House. Many of the petitions started are more general than that and can't be implemented.

The expansion and open API of this is excellent. I hope many others use it.

[Sunlei]

2. I think its really good change.org will link up their system. They get lots of good petitions.

[MineralMan]

3. That sounds very good, doesn't it?

I hope the system expands even further in the future. It was an excellent innovation by the Obama administration.

[RKP5637]

4. This will be great!!! n/t

[RKP5637]

5. K&R! n/t