close X

Archives for 2015

03/16/2015

Washington Examiner: Three federal departments ignored law requiring FOIA compliance reports

Read the full story: Washington Examiner 

Three federal agencies didn’t bother to submit mandatory reports to the Department of Justice on their compliance with the federal Freedom of Information Act in 2014.

 

The Departments of Education, Homeland Security and Treasury each earned “F” grades on Cause of Action’s FOIA Report Card as a result of their failure to comply with the law’s reporting requirement. The reports were due Dec. 15, 2014, and have been required on an annual basis since 2008.

 

Cause of Action is a Washington-based nonprofit that focuses on litigation on behalf of greater transparency and accountability in government. The group’s FOIA report card was made public Monday as part of Sunshine Week, an annual series of events and projects hosted by news groups and nonprofit organizations dedicated to promoting open government.

News Learn More
03/16/2015

Fox News: Clinton campaign shifts story on destroyed emails

Read the full story: Fox News

Watchdog group Cause of Action has released its 2015 “Grading the Government” Report Card for all 15 Cabinet level agencies and their average response times to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in the 2014 fiscal year. Eleven of the 15 received a “C” or worse with 3, the Departments of Treasury, Homeland Security and Education all receiving an “F”. The State Department, highlighted in recent weeks by questionable email and internet policies, received a “D”.

News Learn More
03/16/2015

Washington Examiner: Watchdogs prepare for Sunshine Week

Read the full story: Washington Examiner

As controversy over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s hidden emails sparks heightened public interest in the Freedom of Information Act, transparency advocates agree that a week dedicated to exposing government secrets couldn’t be coming at a better time.

 

During the seven days of Sunshine Week media outlets, nonprofits, schools and concerned citizens team up to promote the importance of transparency and accountability at all levels of government. James Madison’s March 16 birthday is the anchor of the week because he wrote the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution…

 

Transparency litigator Cause of Action aims to illustrate the flaws in FOIA by ranking federal agencies on how well they handle requests for information in its 2015 “Grading the Government” report.

 

“Sunshine Week is extremely important because the public has a right to know what their government is up to,” said Dan Epstein, Cause of Action’s president. “Unfortunately, when it comes to transparency, most agencies in Washington are performing woefully under par.”

News Learn More
03/16/2015

Washington Post: READ IN: Leverage On Lynch Edition

Read the full story: Washington Post

A new report to be released today from Cause of Action will fault most federal departments for dragging their feet on Freedom of Information Act requests. The report finds long delays in FOIA requests to the State Department, Energy and Justice. But kudos to the Interior Department, which manages the fastest turnaround time on its FOIA requests.

News Learn More
03/16/2015

Treasury, Education and Homeland Security Departments Receive Failing Grades On FOIA Responsiveness

State Department gets a “D”, and is getting worse”

Cause of Action’s 2015 Grading the Government Report Card assigns grades to all 15 cabinet departments for their average response times in fiscal year 2014 to requests submitted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Eleven out of the fifteen agencies received a “C” or worse letter grade, with the Departments of Treasury, Homeland Security, and Education each receiving an “F” because they failed to comply with FOIA in submitting the required information. The State Department, which recently displayed its flawed approach to records retention in connection with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails, received a “D” grade.

“Our oversight mission – which focuses on transparency, and accountability in the Federal government – depends upon agency compliance with FOIA,” said Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein. “Based on our findings over the past three years, Cause of Action has no reason to believe that agency performance under FOIA has improved, which is simply unacceptable to taxpayers who deserve a government that operates in the open.”

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE REPORT CARD

Cause of Action assigned letter grades to each agency by comparing information reported in annual agency reports against the required response time under the law. Seven agencies – the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, and Justice – received a “C” or “D” grade; only the Departments of the Interior, Veteran Affairs, Commerce, and Labor received an “A” or “B” grade.

Interestingly, Cause of Action’s reports over the past three years show that the State Department’s efforts are getting worse, and that the Treasury Department continues to be among the worst agencies on this issue.

 

Press Release Learn More
03/16/2015

Law360: LabMD, FTC Data Security Fight Delayed Again

Read the full story: Law360

An administrative law judge has postponed until May 5 the resumption of proceedings in the Federal Trade Commission’s closely watched data security fight with LabMD Inc., marking the latest delay in a case that has been on hold for almost a year.

 

In an order dated Thursday, Chief Administrative Law Judge D. Michael Chappell revealed that the evidentiary hearing in the case, which was scheduled to resume on March 19, would instead be rescheduled to May 5.

 

The order offered no reason for the extension, saying only that the decision was “based upon good cause” and had been made following a conference call with the parties during which there had been no objections. The case has been on hold since May 30, when witness Rick Wallace revealed a congressional investigation into a key player in the FTC’s case.

 

“The judge told us the hearing was postponed, so we’ll show up on May 5 and we’ll see what Mr. Wallace has to say then,” Reed Rubinstein, a Dinsmore & Shohl LLP partner and the senior vice president of litigation at Cause of Action, which is representing LabMD in the administrative proceeding, told Law360 on Monday.

News Learn More
03/16/2015

E&E News: Interior gets high marks for FOIA responses — report

Read the full story: E&E News

The Interior Department received a high grade for its responsiveness to the Freedom of Information Act in a study released today by a government watchdog group.

 

The report card by conservative-leaning Cause of Action gave Interior an A when it came to replying to FOIA requests. The study looked at average FOIA response times in fiscal 2014 for the 15 Cabinet departments. Those figures were taken from the agencies’ annual FOIA reports.

 

Others in the government didn’t fare as well on the report card. The Department of Energy earned a D, as did the State Department, which has come under scrutiny for its handling of public records after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was found to have been using a private email account. Eleven agencies received a C or worse from the group.

 

News Learn More