With the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) electing to operate under a veil of secrecy, lawsuits attacking the agency are proliferating. The lawsuits filed under the Freedom of Information Act seek information on a range of issues including EPA actions and policies on climate change, water rules, pesticides and toxic waste sites. Other cases seek information about schedules and travel records including flights booked in first class by chief administrator Scott Pruitt to avoid run ins with critical fellow passengers. (Politico, February 26, 2018, by Emily Holden)
Working with Politico, Nick Schwellenbach, a researcher for the Project on Government Oversight or POGO, February 25, 2018, dug up statistical patterns to show the extent of the problem. The findings: The administrator’s office is complying with FOIA requests at a lower rate than the rest of the agency; the office is facing requests for records far over the number of requests filed during the last several years of the Obama administration; Pruitt has only recently began releasing a “version of his calendar,” and many FOIA requests are sent to Pruitt’s office for review, delaying the process and precipitating FOIA lawsuits.