Check out this short clip from a Radio America interview with COA Executive Director Dan Epstein.
02/15/2013
02/15/2013
Innovative Investigations — How a Watchdog Group Uses the FOIA Process to Push the Limits of Transparency
NOTE: This post, written by our own Mary Beth Hutchins, was first published on Sunlight Foundation’s Blog. We look forward to working with them again.
The need for government transparency has never been greater than it is right now and at Cause of Action, we’re working to make sure it happens.
As a nonprofit government accountability organization, Cause of Action works to expose cronyism, waste, fraud and mismanagement in the federal government through a combination of investigations, education and litigation.
With our staff of investigators, lawyers and communications professionals committed to government transparency, Cause of Action frequently uses Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to shed light on otherwise opaque facets of the Federal Government.
By law, Americans have the right to access a broad array of information from the federal government through FOIA requests. However, roadblocks do arise when federal agencies put up obstacles and this is where Cause of Action’s combination of litigation with investigation can really sink teeth into the transparency debate.
One of our recent investigations took us through one such roadblock put up by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). NARA is in possession of the documents that contributed to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s (FCIC) report on the 2008 financial crisis and therefore, we argue, is subject to FOIA. In October 2011, Cause of Action submitted a FOIA request to NARA for “all documents, including email 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.”
NARA denied our request one month later on the grounds that FCIC records are not “agency records.” Their claim is that since the FCIC was a commission created by Congress, FCIC records are congressional records, which are not subject to FOIA. However, Congress and the FCIC turned over these records to NARA and for Congress to access them, they themselves must consult NARA. It raises a question of control: Does NARA’s control of these documents subject them to FOIA? We believe it does and we believe the law will back us up. So, after our appeal was denied, Cause of Action made the decision to pursue legal action and subsequently filed a lawsuit against NARA for the release of FCIC documents. It is our firm belief that American taxpayers deserve to know what information contributed to the FCIC’s findings on the financial crisis.
While on the surface this lawsuit may look fairly simple (we want records and NARA is refusing to give them), if we dig a bit deeper into the issues at hand, the real implications are astounding. If NARA wins, an avenue for obfuscation and withholding of documents emerges. One needn’t look further than a 2009 memo from President Obama that states, “All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA and to usher in a new era of open Government,” to see guidance that is going ignored, in this case by NARA.
Though the NARA case highlights some of the opacity within the federal government, it is only the tip of the iceberg. Luckily, Cause of Action, just like the Sunlight Foundation, remains committed to bringing transparency and accountability to all aspects of the federal government.
To learn more about Cause of Action, visit us on the web at www.causeofaction.org, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
02/15/2013
Morning News for Friday, February 15, 2013
The GAO released its biennial report of the agencies at the highest risk for waste, fraud and abuse. The Washington Guardian has the latest:
Congress’ main investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, has released its latest list of government programs at high-risk of waste, fraud and abuse, continuing a tradition of providing lawmakers with the report every two years at the start of a new Congress. And most on this year’s list are long-time, repeat offenders.
DOE Loan Recipient Tesla Motors attempts to defend its name after the NY Times piece doubted the car’s capabilities. Daily Caller has this coverage:
The New York Times is under attack from electronic-car maker Tesla, whose chairman and CEO on Wednesday posted a full-page, data-filled refutation of claims made by Times reporter John Broder that its Model S failed spectacularly during a test drive. The CEO, Elon Musk, flatly accuses the reporter of both lying in his story and repeatedly attempting to sabotage the car. “We assumed that the reporter would be fair and impartial, as has been our experience with The New York Times, an organization that prides itself on journalistic integrity,” wrote Musk, in a post on Tesla’s website called “A Most Peculiar Test Drive.”
President Obama continues to claim that his administration is leading the charge in terms of transparency despite mounting evidence to the contrary. The Washington Free Beacon has this story:
President Obama once again claimed his administration is the “most transparent in history” Thursday, despite lengthy record of failed reform and increased secrecy. Obama was answering questions during a Google hangout when a woman questioned him on his promises of greater government transparency, noting things “feels a lot less transparent. “This is the most transparent administration in history,” Obama assured the woman. “I can document that this is the case.”
02/14/2013
Morning News for Thursday, February 14, 2013
The Energy Dept. funded a battery company that has yet to begin production. The Washington Post reports:
The Energy Department gave $150 million in economic Recovery Act funds to a battery company, LG Chem Michigan, which has yet to manufacture cells used in any vehicles sold to the public and whose workers passed time watching movies, playing board, card and video games, or volunteering for animal shelters and community groups. Those are the conclusions of a report released Wednesday by Energy Department Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman, who said the grant to a subsidiary of South Korean giant LG “had not been managed effectively.”
Coverage of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company continues. Read more from Bay City News:
The owners of the Drakes Bay Oyster Farm announced last week they are appealing a ruling in which a federal trial judge declined to block the closure of the decades-old farm at Point Reyes National Seashore. In a statement released by his lawyers, co-owner Kevin Lunny said, “We continue to be grateful for the outpouring of support from our community. We have had time to weigh our options carefully, and have decided to appeal the judge’s decision.”
From The New York Times: President Obama resubmits appointees for the NLRB.
Despite opposition from nearly all Senate Republicans, President Obama asked the Senate on Wednesday to confirm two Democrats whose recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court last month. The two, Sharon Block, a former labor counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Richard Griffin, former general counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers, have been serving on the board since January 2012, appointed by the president during a Senate break after Republicans blocked their confirmations.
02/13/2013
Morning News for Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be discussed in a press conference today. The Republican reports:
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., will join Democratic colleagues from the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday in a press conference discussing the future of an agency she holds close to her heart- the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren, who helped create the bureau and was passed over as its first chief due to staunch Republican opposition, will now get the chance to defend it in the Senate.
The Dept. of Energy reconsiders loan guarantee for a wind farm. Read more from The Boston Herald:
Cape Wind is back in line for a big loan from the Obama administration, over the objections of project opponents and Republican congressmen who are sounding the alarm about investing taxpayer cash in another potential Solyndra. The U.S. Department of Energy shelved the offshore wind developer’s request for $2 billion in federal aid in 2011 because of a lack of progress, but recently reconsidered the application — although reportedly for a smaller amount.
From The Washington Examiner: Dept. of Veterans Affairs accuracy in reports questioned.
Accuracy reports have been manipulated by the Department of Veterans Affairs to make it appear employees make fewer mistakes on claims for disability payments than they actually do, The Washington Examiner has found. Audits of individual case files by the agency’s inspector general consistently show error rates on disability claims much higher than those claimed in official reports.
02/13/2013
After The State of the Union: One Look at Energy and Jobs
“If we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas.” This language along with “energy independence” and “clean energy “are a reoccurring themes with the Obama Administration, but are actions by the Department of Energy backing up the rhetoric?
Let’s circle back to the President’s 2011 State of the Union Address, in which he promised that the United States would become “the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”
Recently, the Department of Energy has backed away from this target. Shocking, right? Well, with only 71,000 electric vehicles currently on the road, the Administration has a long way to go in order to fulfill its promise to the American taxpayers.
The Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVM), a program designated to achieve better technology, innovation, and jobs, has since come under scrutiny. In a recent Washington Post article, Carol D. Leonning notes:
The program, “which is run by the Energy Department, invited ‘green’ carmakers to compete for huge, low-interest government loans that they could use to ramp up production, inside the United States, of electric and alternative vehicles that would reduce fuel emissions…So far, the program has only loaned $8.5 billion of its authorized funds.”
Headlining the New York Times earlier this week, John M. Broder’s less-than laudatory review of the Tesla Model S Sedan illustrates the failure of the electric vehicle to retain a battery charge and maintain operation within the allotted mile range between charges. Tesla is just one of the five recipients of the Department’s ATVM Program, and part of the “solution” which the Administration boasted about, according to the Broder’s review:
“The federal government has invested in the effort to find a solution. Three years ago, Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and secretary of energy, proudly announced a $465 million loan to Tesla as part of an advanced vehicles program intended to cut fossil fuel use and address global warming.”
One critic, Charles Lane of the Washington Post, went so far as to declare the ATVM loan program a “case study in unchecked righteousness.” We agree. Who is holding the DOE accountable for their poor selections in loan recipients? Why did the DOE reject other, well-qualified candidates? And on what basis were these loans awarded?
Take XP Vehicles, for example. They’re a green-energy startup based out of San Francisco, California who applied for the ATVM loan program in November 2008. Their design cost less than $20,000, required no gasoline or extension cords to charge, was easy to repair and build, and used crash effect reduction materials. So why aren’t their affordable and reliable cars out on the road? DOE denied their loan.
Cause of Action has since stepped in, and is challenging the DOE’s process through which they granted these loans. We’re concerned the DOE has acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner, inconsistently favoring some, while disadvantaging other applicants. These loan programs were intended to promote U.S. advanced technology companies and to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil. Instead, we’ve only found ourselves with thousands of unsold cars, unfulfilled promises, and a growing distrust in the government.
There are other more deserving applicants of the ATVM loan program. We’re certain of it.
XP Vehicles may be just one of many applicants worthy of reconsideration, but they’re certainly a good place to start.
02/12/2013
Join us for live commentary of the State of the Union
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