Archives for 2015

Cause of Action in the News:

Daily Caller  – Watchdog Group Hopes To Depose Hillary, State Department Officials                                                                                                       
Cause of Action has requested to depose former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Under Secretary of Management for State Patrick Kennedy, the State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Margaret Grafeld, in addition to officials in the National Archives and Records Administration.

Our hope is that if the deposition of these individuals is allowed we will be able to shine a bright light onto the mystery of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.  A couple of the questions we plan on asking Mrs. Clinton include why she deleted emails in the first place and why she didn’t turn over electronic copies, which could contain insightful metadata.

In Other News:

Examiner.com – FTC joins EPA, Justice in probes of Volkswagen

In addition to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission has joined the Volkswagen investigation.  The FTC is planning on looking into VW’s advertisements.  With at least 250 consumer lawsuits in 28 states and criminal probes in other countries this just adds to the car manufacturer’s woes.

Slate – IRS Hasn’t Finished Doing Windows Upgrades Because It Can’t Find a Bunch of Its Computers

Even after spending $128 million upgrading their computers from Windows XP on their computers and Windows 2003 from their servers, the Internal Revenue Service isn’t finished. An audit revealed that almost fifty percent of the servers and over a thousand computers have not yet been upgraded.  It was also revealed that the IRS cannot find these computers and servers to upgrade them. “At the conclusion of our fieldwork, the IRS had not accounted for the location or migration status of approximately 1,300 workstations and upgraded only about one-half of its Windows servers.”

Washington Examiner – New EPA climate rules target your air conditioning

The Environmental Protection Agency has introduced new rules that will directly affect the American people in their homes.  Air conditioners and refrigerators are the next target the EPA has in its sights.  The EPA’s administrator said that the rules would get us closer to meeting the current administration’s climate agenda.

Business Insider – Facebook, Google, Amazon and other big tech companies just slammed a proposed US cybersecurity law

A group of large tech companies have grouped together and have gone after the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, which they claim “does not sufficiently protect users’ privacy or appropriately limit the permissible uses of information shared with the government.”  The act is supposed to make it easier for the government to get customer information from big tech companies.  As of right now, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act is being deliberated in Congress.

Wall Street Journal – Clinton Server’s Technical Problems Boosted Use of Personal Accounts (In less than a month, the server appeared to stop functioning at least twice, according to emails the conservative group Citizens United obtained)

By now everyone has heard of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server.  What everyone may not know is that after being in use for only a month the server started having technical difficulties.  When the server was down the email addresses that it was responsible for weren’t working either, which may have led to the use of personal email accounts to send State Department emails.

Cause of Action in the News:

Government Exec – OMB Pressured to Invoke Bush Directive Banning Earmarks

The week Cause of Action has partnered with Demand Progress, another government watchdog, to petition the Office of Management and Budget to enforce an executive order that was put in place to protect taxpayers.  When looking into the discretionary spending of federal agencies, we discovered “that OMB’s current efforts to ensure that discretionary grant decision-making is transparent and merit-based are ineffective.”

Dan Epstein, Executive Director of Cause of Action, said the following about the matter: “Cause of Action’s research shows that for years, federal agencies have been ignoring a binding executive order designed to protect taxpayer dollars from being misused. Our organizations believe that Washington has a duty to the public to ensure that federal discretionary spending decisions are transparent and merit-based.”

In Other News:

Politico – Judges refuse to align Clinton email FOIA lawsuits

With almost 40 Freedom of Information Act lawsuits concerning Hillary Clinton’s private email server, the current administration had requested that they all be combined into one suit.  The federal court judges in charge of those cases have all denied the request.  Chief Judge Richard Roberts said “The judges who have been randomly assigned to these cases have been and continue to be committed to informal coordination so as to avoid unnecessary inefficiencies and confusion, and the parties are also urged to meet and confer to assist in coordination.”

Daily Signal – Audit: IRS Fails Transparency Test on Over 1 in 10 FOIA Requests

“Although the IRS properly released thousands of pages from these documents, taxpayer rights still may have been violated because some information was erroneously withheld.”  This was said in an audit that determined that 12.3 percent of the time the IRS failed to turn over Freedom of Information Act documents.  In addition, the audit also found that “eight cases we identified included improperly withheld information of examination and collection activity and other tax return information that the taxpayer or authorized Power of Attorney should have received.”

Washington Business Journal – DHS leads federal cybersecurity efforts, but will other agencies follow?

The Department of Homeland Security has announced that they will be using a private company Raytheon Co. to help with their cybersecurity.  They are the first government agency to adopt this method of protection for their IT environment.  Experts believe this shows us that the agencies themselves are unable to handle all of their cybersecurity without private sector assistance.

Washington Examiner – Attorney general blasts FBI leaks in Clinton email probe

Attorney General Loretta Lynch chastised the FBI for the anonymous leak of information regarding the FBI investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server.  Since the leak, the FBI has confirmed an investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s email. Attorney General Lynch said “I think leaks are detrimental to any matter, no matter what it is, no matter who is involved.”

Breitbart – REP. JIM JORDAN SAYS HOUSE WILL IMPEACH HEAD OF IRS

Representative Jim Jordan has claimed that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen will be impeached by the House this session.  The IRS has failed to be helpful and has in fact discouraged the investigations into the Tea Party scandal. “If we don’t hold some people accountable in the executive branch for the executive overreach we’ve seen in [the Obama] administration, then they’ll never get the message,” said Rep. Jordan about the issue.

In the News:

The Hill – Audit: Federal networks still vulnerable

The Government Accountability Office audited the cybersecurity of federal agencies and found 24 that had “persistent weaknesses.”  The GAO stated that “These deficiencies place critical information and information systems used to support the operations, assets, and personnel of federal agencies at risk, and can impair agencies’ efforts to fully implement effective information security programs.”  Even though many agencies have received recommendations on ways to increase their cybersecurity, most agencies have failed to adopt any new measures.

NY Times – 3 Hillary Clinton Emails Deemed ‘Secret’ in State Dept. Review of 6,300 Pages

In the latest batch of Hillary Clinton’s emails turned over by the State Department three emails were found that had been classified as “Secret.”  In addition to classified emails, there was also evidence that Russian hackers had attempted to gain access to the former Secretary of State’s private server.  The hackers had attempted a phishing attack using emails claiming New York speeding tickets and it is unclear if Mrs. Clinton opened the emails even though they remained on her sever.

Fox News – Federal judge blocks new Obama administration rules on fracking

New oil and gas regulations have been stopped for now by a federal judge who claims the Environmental Protection Agency has not been granted authority to regulate hydraulic fracking.  Those seeking to prevent the new regulations have said that the rules copy state regulations already in place and would be at the cost of jobs.  Judge Scott Skavdahl’s ruling was based off of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which stated that the EPA has no power to regulate fracking.

Daily Beast – Hillary Clinton on Emails: Whatever (So much for that apology. On Meet the Press, Clinton was again nonchalant about her use of a private server.)

“Whatever happened to them, happened to them.”  This was what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said about the emails on her private server when speaking to Chuck Todd of Meet the Press.  Her husband, former President Bill Clinton said “I have never seen so much expended on so little,” when talking about the email scandal.  Mrs. Clinton claims she has “done all that I can to take responsibility, to be as transparent as possible.”

Government Exec – Obama Again Found Lacking in Open Government Efforts

President Obama’s pledge to be the most transparent administration we have ever seen has continued to fall short.  In the fight for a more open government a collection of advocacy groups have requested that this administration “adopt substantive, measurable and transformative commitments, pursue a more collaborative relationship with civil society, actively support transparency-related legislation and policies, push the intelligence community to significantly reduce both secret law and overclassification, and ensure agencies work both to fulfill and exceed commitments.”

Wall Street Journal – EPA Sets Stricter Standard for Ozone (New limit on pollutant linked to smog draws criticism from industry groups, environmentalists)

The national limit for smog has greatly been reduced due to new Environmental Protection Agency rules.  These new regulations are difficult to meet for manufacturers, large and small alike, but some are angry that the limit wasn’t reduced further.  Penalties, such as loss of federal funding, could be on the table for states that fail to reduce their smog emissions to the new limit.

Cause of Action in the News:

Wall Street Journal – New Front Opens on Clinton Emails (News that FBI has recovered emails prompts Republican senator to ask for independent review)

With the turnover of Hillary Clinton’s email server to the FBI, Cause of Action is continuing to work for a more transparent government.  We are suing both the State Department and the National Archives to get them to do the right thing and ensure all required work emails were given to the government.  “Our lawsuit calls on both of those agencies to ensure that these records are properly recovered, and we intend to continue our efforts until that happens,” said Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein.

Daily Caller – White House Intervened In Dept. Of Energy FOIA Requests

A White House memo was found that told government FOIA lawyers that they must consult with the White House if any FOIA requests included what they called “White House equities.” “This report is yet another piece of evidence that shows how the Obama administration, which was supposed to be the most transparent in history, is anything but. Information seekers, whether they’re individuals, members of the news media or public interest groups, should be extremely troubled by the fact that this White House has been interfering with how federal agencies comply with the Freedom of Information Act,” Dan Epstein Executive Director of Cause of Action said about the memo.

In Other News:

NY Times – Investigators Find Emails Hillary Clinton Said Were Erased

The FBI easily found emails that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said had been deleted.  Investigators are looking into what Clinton had described as “personal” emails and are checking to see if any of them have any level of classification.

Daily Caller – EPA Doesn’t Know About Dozens Of Its Own IT Systems

Most people would assume that a government agency would have some system in place to keep track of it’s IT.  However, the Environmental Protection Agency has an unknown number of IT systems that it doesn’t know about.  Not knowing about your IT systems puts the data on those systems at a much greater risk to data breaches.

Free Beacon – NSA Director: Foreign Spies Would See Clinton’s Emails as a Target

The director of the National Security Administration has admitted that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails would be a prime target for foreign spies.  Director Mike Rogers said that if the situation we’re reversed and it was a foreign leader who was conducting business on a private server, saying “From a foreign intelligence perspective, that represents opportunity.”

Mondaq – FTC Urges Start-Ups To Incorporate Cybersecurity Early

At a Federal Trade Commission conference the FTC emphasized the importance of cybersecurity for small to medium size businesses.  This conference occurred after a Court of Appeals decision to hold Wyndham Worldwide, company who was victim to a cybersecurity attack, responsible for the consumer data loss.  The FTC’s goal is to “ensure that companies make truthful representations about their privacy and security practices, and that they provide reasonable security for consumer data.”