President Barack Obama recently signed a law to improve the Freedom of Information Act, but the Senate Judiciary Committee heard Tuesday that the all-time low for unfulfilled requests occurred just last year.
The committee chaired by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, convened this morning to look at FOIA 50 years after its adoption by President Lyndon Johnson. Continue…
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Senators reached a deal Wednesday to move forward on President Barack Obama's trade agenda only one day after Democrats embarrassed him by blocking it.
Lawmakers said roughly a dozen Senate Democrats agreed to let full-blown debate begin after both parties' leaders consented to tweak the package that failed on a procedural vote Tuesday. Those Democrats' votes were the difference between blocking the agenda and letting it move ahead.
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Read More… from Senate agrees to open debate on Obama’s trade agenda
When his first term began in 2009, President Barack Obama issued a directive to federal agencies to treat requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with “a presumption of openness.” But his White House counsel followed with a memorandum to agencies saying they should consult the White House anytime a request involved what he called executive-branch “equities.”
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President Barack Obama once proclaimed his administration to be the most transparent in history, but a new survey suggests Americans have mixed thoughts on whether new initiatives to open government and its data will make a significant difference in holding the powerful accountable.
A report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, in conjunction with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, found that most Americans are not engaged with using government data sources. Just 7 percent say local governments share their information effectively.
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Read More… from Americans not impressed by open government initiatives
