Catching Up On This Week’s FOIA Hearing

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Charles N. Davis
Seal of the United States Department of Homela...

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Sorry it took me a day, but some reaction from Wednesday’s FOIA hearing:

Republicans in Congress are airing results from one of their first formal investigations of the Obama administration, an inquiry into secretive reviews by political advisers at the Homeland Security Department of hundreds of Freedom of Information requests.

The allegations by Republicans set the tone for future interactions between the White House and Capitol Hill for the upcoming presidential campaign.

Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the department delayed responses and conducted inadequate searches. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the panel, said the department did not actually withhold records for partisan purposes.

 

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Filed under: 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials, 7. Electronic records, 8. Officials' perspectives | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

I Have a Feeling…that Rep. Issa is About to Experience the Waiting Game

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Charles N. Davis
Darrell Issa
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The Associated Press reports that the committee’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wants to get the documents to determine just how well the Obama administration is faring in its transparency effort. The committee is looking for lists of who sought federal documents and what happened to their requests.

Agencies have until Feb. 15 to respond to Issa’s demand. Meeting the deadline could involve a major data dump. AP reports that the Defense Department alone got more than 73,000 FOIA requests last year, and the Justice Department received almost 64,000.

 

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Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »