Obama Administration Continues to Stick Its Info Where the Sun Doesn’t Shine

Yesterday marked the launch of
“Sunshine Week,” an annual push by journalists and activists for
more transparency from the government. At this point in President
Barack Obama’s administration, it’s likely to be celebrated the
same way as St. Patrick’s Day: through heavy drinking.

The “most transparent administration ever” is still a big,
shining lie. The Associated Press analyzed the latest data in the
federal government’s responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests in 2013 and found it censoring or denying access to more
records than ever. From the
Associated Press:

The government’s own figures from 99 federal agencies covering
six years show that half way through its second term, the
administration has made few meaningful improvements in the way it
releases records despite its promises from Day 1 to become the most
transparent administration in history.

In category after category — except for reducing numbers of old
requests and a slight increase in how often it waived copying fees
— the government’s efforts to be more open about its activities
last year were their worst since President Barack Obama took
office.

In a year of intense public interest over the National Security
Agency’s surveillance programs, the government cited national
security to withhold information a record 8,496 times — a 57
percent increase over a year earlier and more than double Obama’s
first year, when it cited that reason 3,658 times. The Defense
Department, including the NSA, and the CIA accounted for nearly all
those. The Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency cited
national security six times, the Environmental Protection Agency
did twice and the National Park Service once.

And five years after Obama directed agencies to less frequently
invoke a “deliberative process” exception to withhold materials
describing decision-making behind the scenes, the government did it
anyway, a record 81,752 times.

The AP counted more than 700,000 FOIA requests in 2013. Of those
requests, 36 percent were denied or the documents provided were
censored. The revelations about National Security Agency metadata
collection revealed by Edward Snowden prompted a host of FOIA
requests:

The AP could not determine whether the administration was
abusing the national security exception or whether the public asked
for more documents about sensitive subjects. The NSA said its 138
percent surge in records requests were from people asking whether
it had collected their phone or email records, which it generally
refuses to confirm or deny. To do otherwise, the NSA said, would
pose an “an unacceptable risk” because terrorists could check to
see whether the U.S. had detected their activities. It censored
records or fully denied access to them in 4,246 out of 4,328
requests, or 98 percent of the time.

In the run-up to Sunshine Week, the National Security Archives
determined that more than half of all government agencies are
ignoring directives by Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to
operate on a “presumption of disclosure,” a directive issued in
2009. The Washington Post
notes that this is still a 20 percentage point improvement over
last year. The Post also noted the typical horrendous
speed and lack of responsiveness by the federal government to adapt
to its own regulations:

The National Security Archives also found that nearly half of
all federal agencies have not updated their FOIA regulations to
comply with 2007 amendments Congress made to the law. The changes
require agencies to cooperate with a new FOIA ombudsman in the
Office of Government Information Services and report specific data
on FOIA output, among other provisions.

More information about Sunshine Week can be found here. The week has kicked off
with a snowstorm in Washington, D.C., which is God’s own way of
letting us know how things stand.