Several key agencies involved with national security reported progress in meeting the agency level enhancements to the federal Freedom of Information Act sought by the Obama administration, but others didn’t even respond to a request for information on progress made, a study released this week shows.
The CIA, Department of Energy, Department of Justice and Department of State did not give a final response to a request from the Knight Open Government Survey for an update on FOIA enhancements.
The Department of Defense and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had taken “concrete action” on at least two of the steps sought by the Obama administration. The Department of Homeland Security had taken one step, as had the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and the Director of National Intelligence.
[resources]
- Knight 2011 Open Government Survey (PDF)
- Agency-by-agency table (PDF)
- National Security Archive Release
- Knight 2011 Open Government Survey (Knight Release)
- Obama Executive Order (PDF)
- Emanuel follow-up memo (PDF)
- The Freedom of Information Act (Full Text, PDF)
- Effective FOIA Requesting Guide (PDF) [/resources]
Overall, 49 of the 90 agencies surveyed in the study had made progress in the FOIA changes, compared to just 13 a year ago.
“At this rate, the president’s first term in office may be over by the time federal agencies do what he asked them to do on his first day in office,” said Eric Newton, of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. (See TABLE below, along with the FULL REPORT).
President Obama in an executive order on Jan. 21, 2009 ordered “presumption in favor of disclosure” and asked agencies to “harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public.”
Then-Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel followed up in a memo last March, reminding agencies to “update all FOIA guidance and training materials to include the principles articulated in the President’s Memorandum” and “assess whether you are devoting adequate resources to responding to FOIA requests promptly and cooperatively.”
The 2011 Knight survey extended beyond its own request for information about meeting the White House marching orders; it also analyzed, by department, the number of FOIA requests approved in full or in part, and rejected. (Full details in study document, below).
- Homeland Security released 8% fewer requests in full and 19% in part, while rejecting 46% more than the year before.
- The Department of Defense had more full released and slightly fewer partials, and rejected slightly more.
- The CIA denied 24% more requests but approved 22% more in full, while partially releasing 6% fewer.
The study lauded the the Department of State for its progress.
The Department of State stands as a major outlier in these results. According to the data, the Department of State released more than 22 times the number of requests, in full, over the previous year. While the Department did report withholding more in 2011 than it did in 2010, the improvement in releases indicates either that State has substantially improved its FOIA process, or that it is dealing with an anomaly in the types of requests being processed.
The best morsel of snark in the Knight release came from Nate Jones, FOIA coordinator for The National Security Archive, which did the study for Knight.
“Perhaps the Postal Service lost that memo in the mail,” Jones said, referring to the lack of records available from the U.S. Postal Service, which said it had not even received the most recent memo from the White House.
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