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Read the full story: Washington Free Beacon

Despite President Obama’s pledge to run the “most transparent administration in history,” federal agencies are still struggling to meet White House benchmarks, and at least three ignored Freedom of Information Act reporting requirements, according to several recent reports released in conjunction with Sunshine Week.

 

The government watchdog group Cause of Action released a Freedom of Information Act report card for 15 federal agencies that receive the bulk of all FOIA requests. Six of the 15 agencies received failing grades. Three agencies—the Departments of Education, Homeland Security and Treasury—earned “F” grades for failing to comply with the law’s annual reporting requirements.

 

“Our oversight mission—which focuses on transparency, and accountability in the Federal government—depends upon agency compliance with FOIA,” Cause of Action executive director Dan Epstein said in a statement. “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.”

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.

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”.

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.”

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.

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.