Federal Government – Page 4 – National Freedom of Information Coalition

Transparency is a Pro-Government Policy

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Upon assuming the office of the presidency, Barack Obama promised the most transparent administration ever. Nobody asked him to do that, but given the unpopularity of the secrecy of the George W. Bush administration, it was a safe bet that such a promise would be received warmly. President Obama laid out his rationale in a memorandum which included the following key points (emphasis in original):

Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.

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Transparency in the New Year: Open Government and Gridlock

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Does transparency help or hurt the function of our government? In continuing work at the Brookings Institution, scholars engage this question as one fundamental to effective governance and our understanding of our own system. In a January 2 opinion piece in the Washington Post, Gary Bass, Danielle Brian and Norman Eisen take up the cause, arguing that smoke-filled, closed-door, behind-the-scenes government is not the answer.

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Transparency isn’t what keeps government from working

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In 2014, a number of big thinkers made the surprising claim that government openness and transparency are to blame for today’s gridlock. They have it backward: Not only is there no relationship between openness and dysfunction, but more secrecy can only add to that dysfunction.

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How a popular government-transparency bill suddenly died in Congress

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Nothing comes easy for the current Congress, which has already left its mark as one of the least productive in U.S. history.

The Fighting 113th has agreed in principle on the need to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act, a key government-transparency law that guarantees public access to federal records.

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Bid for Records Under FOIA’s Crime-Fraud Exception Fails

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A crime fraud exception to the federal open records law does not apply to emails sought by immigration lawyers who say government lawyers repeatedly deceived the courts about the ability of removed immigrants to return to the United States once they win a second chance in immigration court, a judge has ruled.

Southern District Judge Jed Rakoff (See Profile) denied the summary judgment motion of a coalition led by the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild for 27 documents under the Freedom of Information Act, (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. §552.

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The Clock’s Ticking on Freedom of Information Reform

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One of the remaining dramas as the lame-duck Congressional session slouches to a close is whether House Speaker John Boehner will allow a vote on an important reform measure aimed at strengthening the Freedom of Information Act. That’s the law that allows journalists and the public to access federal government records.

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FOIA bill clears Senate after Rockefeller hold

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Legislation that press freedom groups say would provide important reforms to the federal government’s open records law passed the U.S. Senate Monday, after being briefly blocked by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

“Passage of the FOIA Improvement Act will help open the government to the more than 300 million Americans it serves,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont and a sponsor of the bill.

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Senate Passes Bill To Improve The Freedom Of Information Act

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The Senate has passed a bill to update the Freedom of Information Act.

By voice vote on Monday, lawmakers endorsed a bill by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas that the sponsors said would require federal agencies to have a presumption of openness.

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Standoff could scuttle FOIA bill

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Several federal regulatory agencies expressing concerns about intrusions into their internal decision-making processes have thrown a major roadblock in the path of a bill aimed at easing disclosure of records under the Freedom of Information Act.

Acting on the agencies' criticisms, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) placed a hold on the measure last week just as it appeared on course to swift passage in the Senate.

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DHS needs to improve FOIA processing, cost reporting, congressional investigators say

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Although the Homeland Security Department pledged three years ago to steadily reduce backlogged Freedom of Information Act requests, the number has risen even higher, congressional investigators said.

DHS made some progress by the end of fiscal 2012 to reduce the backlog, but the numbers have risen to more than 50,000 in fiscal 2013, an increase of more than 9,000 since 2011, according to the Government Accountability Office report (pdf) released Nov. 19.

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