Judicial Watch announced today that on March 24, 2014, it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Treasury seeking agency records related to the delay of the "employer mandate" provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as "Obamacare"). Treasury has failed to respond to the FOIA request filed on October 28, 2013.
[…]
A watchdog group may be a step closer to obtaining Justice Department files concerning former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, following a Freedom of Information Act victory in federal court.
In a 31-page decision Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The Justice Department cannot simply categorically reject CREW’s FOIA request, according to the court.
[…]
Read More… from Watchdog group wins FOIA victory in search for Tom DeLay files
To return to a point I’ve been hammering lately: this bloated government is stupid drunk on the trillions of dollars it has imbibed. There are far too many departments and agencies where outrageous abuse goes on for years before inspectors catch up with it. The results of these inspections are kept secret from taxpayers until someone – usually Fox News, or some other conservative media organization – drags it out into the open with a Freedom of Information Act request.
[…]
Read More… from Taxpayer Money Used for Gambling by Postal Service Employees
At the 16th Annual National Freedom of Information Day at the Newseum’s Knight Conference Center, former White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator Cass Sunstein accepted the prestigious James Madison Award on behalf of the five-member President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies which recommended the end of bulk telephone metadata collection.
[…]
Read More… from The Next FOIA Fight: The B(5) “Withhold It Because You Want To” Exemption
When President Barack Obama signed the Open Data Executive Order last May, many IT leaders applauded the White House's decision to release treasure troves of public data as part of an important government initiative for greater transparency.
[…]
Read More… from Government open data proves a treasure trove for savvy businesses
Judicial Watch announced today that on March 18, 2014, it filed two new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to obtain government records about the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
[…]
James Clapper, the Obama administration’s director of national intelligence, is winner of this year’s Rosemary Award, given out for the “Worst Open Government Performance of 2013″ by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
The award is named for Rosemary Woods, President Richard Nixon’s secretary, who took the rap — and posed for a famous stretching picture — for erasing 18 1/2 minutes from a key Watergate coverup tape.
[…]
Read More… from Director of national intelligence wins ‘worst open government’ prize
An Associated Press study Monday found that, despite promises of openness and transparency, the Obama administration is not proving itself to be the most transparent administration ever.
“More often than ever,” the study found, “the administration censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), cited more legal exceptions it said justified withholding materials and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy.”
[…]
Read More… from Blog: Despite promises, Obama’s open government record found wanting
While former NSA-er Edward Snowden has demonstrated his own particular method to fostering greater government transparency, there are alternate ways that won't require you to seek asylum in a foreign country. One officially sanctioned avenue is by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
FOIA was a 1966 federal law that grants the public and the press access to previously unreleased government information and documents (several states have since enacted their own state-specific Freedom of Information acts).
[…]
