The Department of the Interior (DOI) is committed to writing all of our documents in plain language to better improve our services to and communication with the public.
We aim to provide clear and organized information. On January 21, 2009, President Obama charged all federal agencies to establish "a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration" in the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. Congress also passed the Plain Writing Act of 2010 that requires all federal agencies to write "clear Government communication that the public can understand and use."
Our goal is to use plain language in any document that:
Here's what Interior's Associate Deputy Secretary had to say about Plain Writing in a 2011 memo.
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DOI has named the Associate Deputy Secretary as its Plain Language Senior Official who oversees our communication with the public and ensures that it is clear, understandable, and useful in all correspondence, publications, forms, or notices issued. We continue to look for ways to improve our work and would like to hear your feedback. Please contact us at plainlanguage@ios.doi.gov, or phone Bivan Patnaik in the Office of the Executive Secretariat and Regulatory Affairs at (202) 208-4582.