close X
08/21/2012

Are FOIA Challenges Hurting Government Transparency?

 

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are an important legal tool, which allows for organizations such as Cause of Action and the public to find out about how the government is spending tax dollars. FOIA is the only real method that the public can use to get specific details on certain aspects of spending and government activity, which is necessary to ensure greater transparency.  FOIA inquiries often yield huge results that take extensive time and effort for agencies to gather and respond to, which often leads to agencies being unable and unwilling to comply with large requests.

The lack of efficiency in agency compliance with FOIA requests serves as a significant hindrance in using this tool effectively to ensure accountability and transparency by Federal Agencies.  Cause of Action submitted a statement for the record to the Congressional Oversight Committee’s hearing on FOIA and Transparency concerning this very issue:

 

Hearing Before The Committee On Oversight and Government Reform

Blog Learn More
08/17/2012

SeafoodSource: Calif. oyster grower fights National Park Service

Read the full article here. Seafoodsource.com

“Cause of Action, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit dedicated to fighting federal overreach, today filed a Data Quality Act complaint before the National Park Service (NPS) for its intentional use of inaccurate, nontransparent and deliberately misleading information in an attempt to deny a renewable permit to a California family business for use of national park territory. Kevin and Nancy Lunny have a permit that allows their family business, Drakes Bay Oyster Co., to farm oysters in the Point Reyes National Seashore. When it expires in November, Drakes Bay, which has been operating for many years, will be forced to shut down and more than two dozen Californians will lose their jobs, thereby cutting off a substantial amount of the Bay Area’s commercial oyster supply.

“The National Park Service should not be allowed to get away with using bad data to justify closing a small business,” said Amber Abbasi, chief regulatory counsel at Cause of Action. “The evidence clearly shows how NPS, despite being called out by another federal agency and a credible member of the National Academy of Sciences, is using junk science to bully a family business into shutting down. We’ve sent a complaint to the NPS urging them to adhere to their own information-quality standards for the use of scientific information and correct the Final Environmental Impact Statement. NPS needs to make clear that a neutral scientific analysis reveals that DBOC does not adversely impact the environment in Drakes Estero.”

News Learn More
08/17/2012

WSJ Blog Reports on CoA’s NARA Lawsuit

Read the full article here. Wall Street Journal

“A government accountability group filed a lawsuit on August 14 against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for withholding records pertaining to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) and claiming that these records are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.”

News Learn More
08/15/2012

Cause of Action Sues For Public Release of Records Revealing the Cause of the Financial Crisis

CAUSE OF ACTION SUES FOR PUBLIC RELEASE OF RECORDS REVEALING THE CAUSE OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

National Archives Refuses to Grant Records Concerning Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Claims Records Are Not Subject to FOIA

WASHINGTON – Government accountability group Cause of Action (CoA) filed a lawsuit on August 14 against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for wrongfully withholding records pertaining to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) and claiming that these records are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

 

“The FCIC was created to examine the causes of the financial and economic crisis in the United States, an issue that impacted all Americans,” said Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action. “At a time when the American public is still wondering what or who caused the financial crisis, the National Archives’ refusal to release these records keeps the American public in the dark.”

 

On October 3, 2011, CoA submitted a FOIA request to NARA for:

“[A]ll documents, including e-mail communications, memoranda, draft reports, and other relevant information and/or data contained in the records transfer of Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission documents stored at NARA to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at the U.S. House of Representatives.”

 

On December 1, 2011, NARA denied CoA’s FOIA request on the grounds that FCIC records are not “agency records” that must be disclosed pursuant to FOIA’s disclosure provisions and that the FCIC established a five-year restriction on public access to FCIC records.

 

CoA has appealed this FOIA denial, only to be shut out once again by NARA.

 

“NARA has been in possession of these documents since February of 2011, so to claim that these records are not Agency documents is an obfuscation of the truth,” stated Karen Olea, senior counsel at Cause of Action. “Cause of Action is committed to pursuing these documents so that the American public can know what went into the report that helped shaped the national discussion about the financial crisis.”

Press Release Learn More
08/15/2012

120814 NARA complaint re FCIC documents

102962636-NARA-Complaint-as-Filed-8-14

Filing Learn More
08/15/2012

Mother Jones: National Archives Sued Over Financial Crisis Documents

Read the full story here. Mother Jones

“Cause of Action, a Washington transparency watchdog that filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the FCIC documents last year, thinks the American public should not have to wait that long. Late Tuesday, the group sued NARA in federal court in Washington, DC, aiming to force the disclosure of thousands of pages of as-yet-unreleased documents.

“The FCIC had a big impact on the national discussion about what caused the financial crisis and all Americans have an interest in what really happened,” Mary Beth Hutchins, Cause of Action’s communications director, told Mother Jones. “We have an administration that from day one promised greater transparency in government, and what we’ve seen is that instead of having the public interest in mind, they’re bowing to the whims of this commission. It’s important that people be able to draw their own conclusions and judgments in addition to those the commission may have drawn from these documents.”

In the lawsuit, Cause of Action writes that NARA’s five-year restriction on the release of the documents (except for certain documents FCIC had pre-designated for release) is the same restriction that Phil Angelides, the commission’s Democratic chairman, advocated in a letter he sent to NARA in February 2011. But Cause of Action goes on to note that Peter Wallison, a Republican member of the commission, has said that he believes “the public should have access to all FCIC documents except those records provided to the FCIC on condition of confidentiality” and that he was “not even aware” of Angelides’ letter, “which expresses a position materially inconsistent with his own views.” (Hutchins said Wallison made those statements in phone conversations with Cause of Action’s legal team.)”

News Learn More
08/13/2012

Cause of Action Files Data Quality Complaint Against National Park Service

CAUSE OF ACTION FILES DATA QUALITY COMPLAINT AGAINST NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Faulty, Inaccurate, and Misleading Information Being Used to Shut Down California Family Business

 

WASHINGTON – Cause of Action, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting federal overreach, today filed a Data Quality Act complaint before the National Park Service for its intentional use of inaccurate, nontransparent, and deliberately misleading information in an attempt to deny a renewable permit to a California family business for use of national park territory.

 

When Kevin and Nancy Lunny’s permit, which allows their family business, Drakes Bay Oyster Company (DBOC), to farm oysters in the Point Reyes National Seashore, expires in November, over two dozen Californians will lose their jobs, and DBOC, which has been operating for many years, will be forced to shut down, thereby cutting off a substantial amount of the Bay Area’s commercial oyster supply.

 

“The National Park Service should not be allowed to get away with using bad data to justify closing a small business,” said Amber Abbasi, chief regulatory counsel at Cause of Action. “The evidence clearly shows how NPS, despite being called out by another federal agency and a credible member of the National Academy of Sciences, is using junk science to bully a family business into shutting down. We’ve sent a complaint to the NPS urging them to adhere to their own information-quality standards for the use of scientific information and correct the Final Environmental Impact Statement. NPS needs to make clear that a neutral scientific analysis reveals that DBOC does not adversely impact the environment in Drakes Estero.”

 

Cause of Action filed the Data Quality Act Complaint with the National Park Service (NPS) on behalf of the Lunnys as well as National Academy of Sciences member and former Evan Rauch Chair of Neurobiology at the University of California Dr. Corey Goodman, who found substantial inaccuracies in the National Park Service, Draft Environmental Impact Statement: Drakes Bay Oyster Company Special Use Permit (DEIS) and the March 2012 Atkins Peer Review Report put out by NPS.

 

Among the examples of inaccurate data NPS used against DBOC are the following:

 

NPS Claim: DBOC Causes a “Major Impact” to Soundscape.

Facts: NPS never took on-site measurements of noise generated by DBOC’s equipment. Instead, the DEIS used data from an obscure 1995 study, claiming this data was “representative” of noise generated by DBOC’s equipment in 2012.

  • DBOC uses a 20 horsepower (HP) and a 40 HP oyster boat.
  • But NPS cited fast high-horsepower racing and police patrol boats and 70 HP-plus jet skis operating at full throttle off of the New Jersey coast.

NPS Claim: DBOC Causes an “Adverse Impact” to Harbor Seals, Birds and Bird Habitat, or Visitor Experience and Recreation.

Facts:

  • NPS ignores its own 281,000 time- and date-stamped photographs taken over a three-year period, none of which indicate that DBOC has an impact on Drakes Estero’s harbor seal colony.
  • NPS does not discuss highly probative, credible data—including on-site sound recordings captured by a sophisticated government microphone; NPS photographs, video recordings, and detailed logs; and GPS data—that contradict factual statements, data, and analysis in the DEIS.

 

Additionally, at least one other federal agency has found that the NPS has misused science to advance the public policy goals of certain NPS employees:

  • NPS’s improper treatment of those photographs was the subject of an investigation by the Department of the Interior that resulted in a finding of “administrative misconduct.”

 

Press Release Learn More