Not a good month for openness
It has not been a stellar month for the public's right to know about what the federal government does in Washington, D.C.
First, came the revelations that Hillary Clinton used her own private email system while serving as Secretary of State, meaning the public and historians will have a difficult time determining how State Department business was conducted under her watch. The House of Representatives immediately called for explanations and files. More to come on that in the weeks and months ahead. Then, this week, the White House announced it will be excluding the president's Office of Administration from rules that require compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.
The information act, typically referred to as FOIA, exists to allow the public access to federal documents. A federal appeals court ruled in 2009 that the Office of Administration is exempt from FOIA and the White House decided it was time to enact that approach. Mind you, the White House is not required to exempt the Office of Administration from FOIA, but it chose to nonetheless because it has the court-approved authority to do that. The office is not considered an agency as it mainly provides a range of administrative services, such as information technology, mail, research and graphics development.
The timing of the White House announcement came at an inauspicious moment because it occurred in the middle of Sunshine Week, a national week-long effort to promote open government and greater compliance with FOIA.
President Obama vowed during his initial presidential campaign to promote a more open and transparent government, but there have been ample examples of where the administration has done just the opposite when dealing with requests for information. Case in point: the following opening paragraphs from an Associated Press story this week:
"The Obama administration set a record again for censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.
"The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn’t find documents and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy.
"It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged.
"Its backlog of unanswered requests at year’s end grew remarkably by 55 percent to more than 200,000. It also cut by 375, or about 9 percent, the number of full-time employees across government paid to look for records. That was the fewest number of employees working on the issue in five years.
"The government’s new figures, published Tuesday, covered all requests to 100 federal agencies during fiscal 2014 under the Freedom of Information law, which is heralded globally as a model for transparent government. They showed that despite disappointments and failed promises by the White House to make meaningful improvements in the way it releases records, the law was more popular than ever. Citizens, journalists, businesses and others made a record 714,231 requests for information. The U.S. spent a record $434 million trying to keep up. It also spent about $28 million on lawyers’ fees to keep records secret.
Following publication of AP story, the organization's senior vice president executive editor, Kathleen Carroll, posted a tart comment on Facebook:
"Locking cabinets and buying blackout ink by the ton...the Obama administration sets a new record for denying and censoring records that actually belong to the people. This isn't an issue for journalists alone. You have the right to know ... and to see ... what the government you pay for is doing on your behalf."
As if adding subtle insult to injury, the day after the White House announced the FOIA exclusion, the official White House blog posted the president's NCAA tournament bracket, complete with his handwritten changes. I am as fond of March Madness as the next person. I was born in Indiana, where basketball has a storied history. But really, Mr. President, the importance of your bracket pales by comparison to the information that the public has a right to know.
