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America Expands Its Freedom of Information Act (washingtonpost.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
As America headed into its "Independence Day weekend," the U.S. Congress passed -- and President Obama signed -- the "FOIA Improvements Act of 2016". It now establishes a "presumption of disclosure" by law, and will even allow the disclosure of "deliberative process" records after 25 years, meaning those records from the Reagan (and prior) administrations should now become open, according to the Washington Post. In addition, the law also creates a comprehensive new "online request portal" for requesting records from all agencies, and even requires those agencies to make digital copies available for any records requested three or more times.
"By updating FOIA for the digital age, our law puts more government information than ever before online in a format familiar and accessible to the American people," said Senator Leahy, who sponsored the legislation. On the 50th anniversary of America's original Freedom of Information Act, Leahy added that "a government of, by, and for the people cannot be one that is hidden from them... "
It's the law's 50th anniversary, and Leahy imagined a world 50 years in the future, when the next generation "will look back at this moment and gauge our commitment to the founding principles of our democracy. Let them see that we continued striving for a 'more perfect union' by strengthening the pillar of transparency that holds our government accountable to "We the People.' "
"By updating FOIA for the digital age, our law puts more government information than ever before online in a format familiar and accessible to the American people," said Senator Leahy, who sponsored the legislation. On the 50th anniversary of America's original Freedom of Information Act, Leahy added that "a government of, by, and for the people cannot be one that is hidden from them... "
It's the law's 50th anniversary, and Leahy imagined a world 50 years in the future, when the next generation "will look back at this moment and gauge our commitment to the founding principles of our democracy. Let them see that we continued striving for a 'more perfect union' by strengthening the pillar of transparency that holds our government accountable to "We the People.' "
And the President signed the law on the same day that the State Department said they needed an additional 27 months to release emails between Department of State employees and the Clinton Foundation. Nothing to see here, move on....
How's Kennedy Assassination documents declassification going? They were supposed to hit the public sometime this year, I heard.
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The president with the worst history of blanket denial of FOIA requests, running the most opaque government in our lifetime, signs a law "improving" the FOIA system. What a joke! If he and his executive branch didn't respect it before, they wont respect it now.
I was reading on a gun blog recently about a lawyer who sent the FBI an FOIA wanting to know what offenses would make a person a "domestic abuser" and disqualify them from buying a gun. The FBI said the list was secret and refused to answer. There's your most transparent administration ever!
The BATFE has stopped responding to FOIAs completely. If you want anything from them, you have to sue, pay for counsel, and wait for the lethargic court system to sort it out for a few years. They've even claimed they're not subject to FOIA requests AT ALL!
http://www.guns.com/2015/08/12...
"This memorandum does not create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person."
Am I reading that right? A presumption of disclosure is what they claim...but don't hold them to it?
Exemption 1: Information that is classified to protect national security. Exemption 2: Information related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency. Exemption 3: Information that is prohibited from disclosure by another federal law. Exemption 4: Trade secrets or commercial or financial information that is confidential or privileged. Exemption 5: Privileged communications within or between agencies, including: Deliberative Process Privilege Attorney-Work Product Privilege Attorney-Client Privilege Exemption 6: Information that, if disclosed, would invade another individual's personal privacy. Exemption 7: Information compiled for law enforcement purposes that: 7(A). Could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings 7(B). Would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication 7(C). Could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy 7(D). Could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source 7(E). Would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions 7(F). Could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual Exemption 8: Information that concerns the supervision of financial institutions. Exemption 9: Geological information on wells.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
The law itself specifies that no additional funds are authorized to comply with the new requirements, so we'll see how these changes will actually be implemented. The Washington Post article cited in the summary already notes "Federal agencies have often starved their FOIA departments for resources; the new law will not change that. Backlogs stretch for years."
So, yeah. In theory, it gives broader and easier access to records. In practice, expect to wait forever to have your records request processed, just as before.
The president with the worst history of blanket denial of FOIA requests, running the most opaque government in our lifetime, signs a law "improving" the FOIA system. What a joke! If he and his executive branch didn't respect it before, they wont respect it now.
I didn't like Obama either time he ran for president and I still don't like him. I felt like his worldview was completely wrong, and would cause overall harm to the country. However, his promise of transparency was the one thing about him that made me say, "if he actually follows through on this, we as the people will stand a decent chance of fixing our government for the first time in modern history because we'll know what they are really doing." Of course, I also thought, "we'll see how long it lasts if he gets elected." One key element of Obama's promise was that every piece of legislation would be posted to the Congress' website after passage by both houses before he would sign it in order allow for public comment. I believe it was supposed to be a minimum of five days. As far as I can tell, that hasn't happened once even going back to the first piece of legislation he signed. It certainly didn't happen with the Affordable Care Act, and the way he has been using Executive Orders (some of them secret) to get around Congress one could reasonably conclude that Obama never intended to be transparent, but only said that to appeal to the younger libertarian and classical liberal crowd.
In fact, I would say the best description of Obama is, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss." There are plenty of things I dislike about Trump in this election cycle, but whatever you think of him, he certainly won't be "same as the old boss." Hillary, on the other hand, well...
Not even close. Hoover and his handling of the economic crisis 29 was way worse. Carter and ... pretty much all of the 4 years. And Ford's best feature was probably also the length of his presidency.
They just don't make 'em like Eisenhower anymore. Pretty much the only really good one the US had in the past 100 years. Level headed, efficient, not some gimmicky-flashy show man, simply a president.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.