By Andrew Malcolm
March 21, 2010
The
Democratic administration of Barack Obama, who denounced his
predecessor, George W. Bush, as the most secretive in history, is now
denying more Freedom of Information Act requests than the Republican
did.
Transparency and openness were so important to the new president that
on his first full day in office, he dispatched a much-publicized memo
saying: "All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of
disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles
embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open government. The
presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving
FOIA."
One of the exemptions allowed to deny Freedom of Information requests
has been used by the Obama administration 70,779 times in its first
year; the same exemption was used 47,395 times in Bush's final budget
year.
An Associated Press examination of 17 major agencies' handling of FOIA
requests found denials 466,872 times, an increase of nearly 50% from
the 2008 fiscal year under Bush.
As Ed Morrissey notes on the blog Hot Air, during a time of war and
terrorist threats, any government can justify not releasing some
sensitive information. And true, Obama had previously been a
legislator, not an executive.
But why make such a big campaign deal over a previous administration's
secrecy when you're going to end up being even more secretive?
On March 16 to mark annual Sunshine Week, designed to promote openness
in government, Obama applauded himself by issuing a statement:
"As Sunshine Week begins, I want to applaud everyone who has worked to
increase transparency in government and recommit my administration to
be the most open and transparent ever."
However, a new study out March 15 by George Washington University's
National Security Archive finds less than one-third of the 90 federal
agencies that process such FOIA requests have made significant changes
in their procedures since Obama's 2009 memo.
So, a day later, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel sent out yet
another memo. Since the agencies ignored the memo from the president,
they'll all snap to when the staffer's note arrives, don't you think?
Top of the Ticket, The Times' blog on national politics ( www.latimes.com/ ticket), is a
blend of commentary, analysis and news. This is a selection from the
last week.