“Most Transparent Administration Ever” Is Still Not

<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com">Everett Collection </a>/Shutterstock

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For years, the Obama administration refused to make public the Justice Department’s classified legal opinions on the “targeted killing” of terrorism suspects. But Wednesday’s news that the administration will let some members of Congress see the memos explaining the administration’s legal justification for killing American citizens does not mean this administration is suddenly “the most transparent administration ever.” In fact, forget classified memos: The administration can’t even get the Freedom of Information Act right. On Monday, two congressmen demanded the Obama administration answer for its failure to improve the public’s access to information through FOIA, under which American citizens can request government documents.

On his first day in office President Obama issued a memo committing to a strong, effective FOIA. “The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails,” it read. But filing a FOIA request and getting information back is still a struggle. On Monday, the top members of the House oversight committee, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Darrell Issa (R-Ca.), sent a letter to the Justice Department, which keeps tabs on how FOIA requests are carried out, demanding information on nearly two dozen problems with the Obama administration’s FOIA policy. The congressmen point to “outdated FOIA regulations, exorbitant and possibly illegal fee assessments, FOIA backlogs, [and] the excessive use and abuse of exemptions.”

In 2009, the DOJ told all agencies to disclose information unless doing so is specifically prohibited by law, but as of the end of 2012, according to the letter, two-thirds of agencies were still not in compliance with this DOJ mandate. The DOJ also issued an order in 2009 reining in the use of FOIA exemptions, which are used to deny FOIA requests when the requested information might, for example, reveal classified materials or damage an ongoing investigation. The use of exemptions, which the letter warns can be “easily abused,” has gone down a bit. But there were still over 30,000 full denials and 171,000 partial denials due to exemptions in 2011, out of a total of 644,000 requests.

Issa and Cummings also note that even though a 2007 law restricted the ways in which agencies can slap fees on records requests, getting government info is still too expensive at many agencies. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have accused the Department of Homeland Security of dissuading the free flow of information by imposing “exorbitant” processing fees.

DHS is also guilty of another FOIA-blocking tactic: massive delays in processing. There are 83,000 backlogged requests government-wide, and half of those are at DHS, the letter says, even though the agency only gets about 27 percent of all FOIA requests.

There have been more lawsuits objecting to FOIA denials under Obama than under President Bush. Perhaps with both Issa and Cummings pushing for reform, that number might start to come down.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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