After making bold promises about making his administration the most transparent in history, Obama is looking at bad reviews particularly on granting Freedom of Information Act requests. The administration has also vigorously pursued the prosecution of leakers and whistleblowers and fumbled Obama’s open government initiative. -db From POLITICO, March 5, 2012, by Josh Gerstein. Full story
The Defense Department has revised its policy regarding the Freedom of Information Act to include the “presumption in favor of disclosure”. The change is to promote transparency and accountability involving the FOIA with prompt response to requests. Despite President Barack Obama’s early assurances that transparency would be a priority, the White House has come under criticism for failing to deliver on the stated goals if its open government initiative. -db From Fierce Government, August 14,
The Knight Open Government Survey has revealed that a little over half of the federal agencies have made changes in their response to Freedom of Information Act requests, this after President Obama instructed agencies to “usher in anew era of open government.” Whereas in 2010 the Knight survey found that only 13 out of 90 federal agencies had improved their openness, the survey showed this year that the number had risen to 49, a significant
OpenTheGovernment.org says the Obama administration has made some progress in its quest towards becoming the most open government in history but is tarnishing that effort by spending billions on creating and securing classified material. -db NextGov September 9, 2010 By Aliya Sternstein An annual report card on secrecy in the federal government indicates the Obama administration has taken promising steps toward becoming the most open White House ever, while still criticizing the new president for
The Obama administration attributes a significant drop in FOIA requests in 2009 to their efforts to post more government data online. But a recent report said that less than a third of federal agencies had changed their FOIA procedures since his first day in office when President Obama ordered them to “adopt a presumption in favor” of requests. -db The Washington Post June 7, 2010 By Ed O’Keefe Formal requests for federal data and information