close X
01/10/2018

IRS Dodges Oversight, Refuses to Measure Economic Impact of its Rules: Investigative Report

Washington D.C. – Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) today released a groundbreaking investigative report, Evading Oversight: The Origins and Implications of the IRS Claim that its Rules Do Not Have an Economic Impact, that reveals how the IRS has developed a series of self-bestowed exemptions allowing the agency to evade several legally required oversight mechanisms. The report outlines in detail how the IRS created this exemption to exempt itself from three critical reviews intended to provide our elected branches and the public an opportunity to assess the economic impact of rules before they are finalized.

Read about the report in today’s Wall Street Journal, including suggestions for how the White House and Congress can work together to end this harmful practice.

CoA Institute Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor James Valvo: “The IRS for too long has evaded its responsibilities to conduct and publish analysis of its rules. Rules issued by the IRS can change the economic landscape for Americans in many ways, including how the agency calculates deductions, exemptions, reporting, and recordkeeping. By creating bureaucratic loopholes, the IRS deliberately sidesteps several oversight mechanisms designed to provide a check on overly burdensome rules. The IRS should be held to the same standard as other regulatory agencies and stop avoiding its responsibilities.”

For years, the IRS has evaded several laws directing agencies to create economic impact statements for rules. These analyses are part of three oversight mechanisms: The Regulatory Flexibility Act, the Congressional Review Act, and review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.  All three are good-government measures designed to provide a check on abuse by the administrative state.

CoA Institute’s investigative report reveals the origins and implications of the unprecedented IRS position that its rules have no economic impact and do not require such analysis because, it claims, any impact emerges from the underlying law that authorized the rule, and not the agency’s decision to issue or alter it.

The full report, including executive summary and key findings, can be accessed HERE.

For information regarding this press release, please contact Zachary Kurz, Director of Communications at CoA Institute: zachary.kurz@causeofaction.org.

Media, Press Release Learn More
12/6/2017

CoA Institute Investigates CFPB’s ‘Dumbledore Army’ Using Encrypted Messaging Apps to Thwart Transparency

Washington D.C. – Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) today filed a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request after media reports identified a number of career employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) who use encrypted messaging apps to communicate about ways to resist changes under newly Trump-appointed acting director Mick Mulvaney. The group reportedly refers to itself as Dumbledore’s Army, a nod to a fictional resistance movement in the Harry Potter novels.

CoA Institute Counsel Eric Bolinder: “A number of CFPB employees are reportedly using encrypted apps on their phones to evade transparency laws and conceal their communications from oversight. Under the Federal Records Act, the CFPB has a legal obligation to preserve all records made by employees working on official government business. Congress and the public have a right to know if federal employees are intentionally evading transparency in order to resist changes under CFPB’s new leadership.”

A December 5, 2017 article by the New York Times reported that CFPB employees are communicating among themselves using encrypted messaging applications:

An atmosphere of intense anxiety has taken hold, several employees said. In some cases, conversations between staff that used to take place by phone or text now happen almost exclusively in person or through encrypted messaging apps.

It is unknown whether these employees discuss work-related issues using their CFPB-issued or personal devices. Under the Federal Records Act, the CFPB has a legal obligation to preserve records evidencing employees working on government business, no matter the medium of their communication.

CoA Institute’s FOIA seeks all records reflecting the number of CFPB devices on which encrypted messaging applications were installed, internal policy guidelines on the use of such apps, as well as the communications themselves and efforts by CFPB to recover and archive these messages. The FOIA also specifically requests all communications that contain the words “Dumbledore,” “Dumbledore’s Army,” “Snape,” “Voldemort,” and “He-who-shall-not-be-named,” among other records.

The full FOIA can be found here.

For information regarding this press release, please contact Zachary Kurz, Director of Communications at CoA Institute: zachary.kurz@causeofaction.org.

Media, Press Release Learn More
11/28/2017

CoA Institute Files Second Lawsuit for Records Concerning EPA Employees’ Use of Encrypted Messaging App

Washington, D.C. – Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) today filed a second lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) for the failure to disclose records about an ongoing investigation into agency employees’ use of an encrypted messaging application, called “Signal.”  The records at issue—which were the subject of two Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests (here and here)—include a special report, requested by the EPA Office of Inspector General and generated by an agency contractor, which identifies the mobile applications running on most EPA-furnished devices, as well as documents concerning the agency’s continuing efforts to address allegations of wrongdoing, including the avoidance of federal records management laws.

CoA Institute Counsel Ryan Mulvey: “We now know that a small group of career EPA employees used Signal to avoid transparency.  These employees’ work-related communications—including their messages concerning any proposed efforts to thwart the new administration’s political appointees from carrying out the president’s policy agenda—should have been preserved for disclosure to the public.  Records released by the EPA, however, prove that this preservation never took place.  Now, the EPA has effectively refused to disclose any additional documents that could show how pervasive the use of Signal was and how seriously the agency has tried to rectify deficiencies in meeting its record preservation obligations.”

CoA Institute opened its investigation into the use of Signal at the beginning of the year, following media reports that suggested a select number of career officials were using the application to plan methods for obstructing the Trump administration’s incoming political leadership.  CoA Institute’s investigation was widely discussed in the press, along with Congress’s request for the EPA’s watchdog to independently investigate the matter.

Just hours after CoA Institute filed its first FOIA lawsuit, on March 23, 2017, the EPA’s Office of General Counsel acknowledged that there was, indeed, an “open law enforcement” investigation and, as a result, responsive records would have to be redacted.  The EPA ultimately reconsidered its position and, notwithstanding its active investigation, agreed to release relevant records.  Those records prompted the follow-up FOIA requests at issue in today’s lawsuit.

More information on CoA Institute’s investigation can be found here.

The full complaint can be found here.

For information regarding this press release, please contact Zachary Kurz, Director of Communications at CoA Institute: zachary.kurz@causeofaction.org.

Media, Press Release Learn More
11/27/2017

CoA Institute Seeks CFPB Records Surrounding Controversial Appointment of Former Director’s Subordinate to Lead the Agency

Washington D.C. – Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) today filed a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) for all records relating to the last-minute appointment made by the agency’s departing director, Richard Cordray, that made his former chief of staff, Leandra English, deputy director. The move allegedly puts Ms. English in line to take over as acting director, despite President Trump’s recent appointment of Mick Mulvaney to the same position.  CoA Institute seeks to better understand the process by which English was named deputy director, and what process led to her claiming to be acting director.

CoA Institute President and CEO John J. Vecchione: “The CFPB is playing a dangerous game, which threatens to block political accountability of the Bureau. It has created a ‘two-headed beast’ that creates uncertainty in a critical sector of our economy. Americans deserve to know the motivations and legal foundation behind Mr. Cordray’s last-minute decision to promote his chief of staff, potentially in defiance of the appointment of the Executive under the Vacancies Act.”

On Friday, when Richard Cordray officially resigned from his position, he named English as deputy director. Following President Trump’s subsequent appointment of Mulvaney, on Sunday night, English filed a lawsuit against both Trump and Mulvaney asking the court to halt the appointment of Mulvaney as acting director.

CoA Institute’s FOIA request seeks all records of communications regarding the appointment of English, including emails and other communications between Cordray, English, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and others.

The full FOIA request is available here

For information regarding this press release, please contact Zachary Kurz, Director of Communications at CoA Institute: zachary.kurz@causeofaction.org

Media, Press Release Learn More
11/20/2017

CoA Institute Investigating Taxpayer-Funded Settlements for Sexual Harassment, Discrimination on Capitol Hill

Washington D.C. – Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) has filed a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request with the U.S. Department of the Treasury as part of an investigation into the secret  settlement payments of millions in taxpayer dollars to settle cases of sexual harassment and other forms of invidious discrimination by members of Congress and their staff over the last two decades.

CoA Institute President John J. Vecchione: “Powerful testimony, admissions by the Office of Compliance, and numerous brave women speaking out have brought to light sexual harassment and discrimination in Congress. Unfortunately, many questions remain concerning how and under what authority these settlement payments have been made. If taxpayers are footing the bill to settle complaints of misconduct, the American public should know about it.”

CoA Institute’s FOIA request seeks all records and communications relating to taxpayer funds used to settle complaints of misconduct against members of Congress and their staffs. It requests all records, including financial records, relating to settlement payments made over the past 20 years for any allegation of misconduct, including sexual harassment, racial and religious discrimination, and discrimination against people with disabilities.

The existence of settlement payments has been publicly confirmed by the congressional Office of Compliance, which stated that the funds for the payments comes from an account operated by the Treasury Department.

For information regarding this press release, please contact Zachary Kurz, Director of Communications at CoA Institute: zachary.kurz@causeofaction.org

Media, Press Release Learn More
11/9/2017

Court Dismisses Hillary Clinton Email Recovery Case

Washington D.C. – A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today dismissed a case brought by Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) and Judicial Watch against the Secretary of State and the Archivist of the United States to compel them to fulfill their legal obligations to recover all of Hillary Clinton’s unlawfully removed email records during her tenure as Secretary of State.

In December 2016, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of CoA Institute and Judicial Watch, overturning an earlier opinion by the same district court judge that had dismissed the case as “moot.” Despite the higher court’s rebuke, the Secretary of State and U.S. Archivist still refused to perform their statutory obligations under the Federal Records Act to recover Secretary Clinton’s email records by initiating action through the Attorney General.

CoA Institute President and CEO John J. Vecchione: “The fact that this case was dismissed does not absolve Secretary Clinton or show that all of her unlawfully removed email records have been recovered. In fact, the Court’s decision shows that Secretary Clinton violated the Federal Records Act and that a subset of her work-related emails remains missing. Unfortunately, the Court concluded that efforts by the FBI in its investigation of Secretary Clinton’s handling of classified material, which resulted in the recovery of numerous emails that Clinton had not previously turned over, left nothing further for the Attorney General to do.”

This case, for the first time, brought to light that the FBI’s investigation included the issuance of grand jury subpoenas. The Court stated that “referral to the Attorney General” is the typical remedy for unrecovered records, but found that unnecessary in this case because:

The Government has already deployed the law enforcement authority of the United States to recover Clinton’s emails, as the FBI has sought those records as part of its investigation into whether Clinton mismanaged classified information. The Court thus need not speculate about what the Attorney General might do.

Testimony submitted by FBI Assistant Director E.W. Priestap opined that the Bureau’s investigation was conclusive. However, the FBI’s investigation focused solely on “unauthorized transmission and storage of classified information” and was not a Federal Records Act record-recovery effort, which was the focus of this litigation. Regardless, the Court found Agent Priestap’s opinions “relevant and reliable,” stating:

Although the FBI and the Attorney General are not one and the same, Jeff Sessions would necessarily look to his investigative arm to recover Clinton’s emails. The FBI’s own assessment of its searches is therefore telling.

Read the full opinion here

Media, Press Release Learn More
11/2/2017

Cause of Action Institute Sues White House OMB Over Failure to Act on Transparency Rules

Washington, DC – Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) today filed a lawsuit against the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) for failing to act on two petitions for rulemaking submitted well over a year ago. Both petitions ask OMB to take its transparency obligations seriously and enact rules that would promote public disclosure of agency records.

The first petition requests that the Office of Management and Budget update its fee guidance for Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests. OMB’s fee guidance is outdated and now conflicts with both statutory and judicial authorities. The FOIA law requires OMB to establish these guidelines and requires every agencies’ fee rules to conform to OMB’s guidance. The FOIA Advisory Committee and the Archivist of the United States have also recommended that Office of Management and Budget update this guidance.

The second petition relates to protecting taxpayers against wasteful executive branch earmarks. Previous administrations have required agencies to disclose congressional efforts to meddle in agency spending decisions, an effort first started under President George W. Bush’s Executive Order 13457. The Trump administration has yet to address this issue.

CoA Institute Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor James Valvo: “It does not appear the Trump administration has any plans to finalize these rules, which would go a long way to promoting government transparency. FOIA requesters are often deterred due to high costs agencies charge to produce records. In recent years, the courts have clarified that many groups beyond traditional journalists are now eligible for news media fee waivers. Updating OMB’s FOIA guidance to reflect this broad definition is critical. This lawsuit is a great opportunity for the Trump administration to show its leadership on transparency issues.”

The lawsuit can be found here

For information regarding this press release, please contact Zachary Kurz, Director of Communications at CoA Institute: zachary.kurz@causeofaction.org

Press Release, Media Learn More