An editorial from The Exponent Telegram
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A recent hearing by the House Oversight Committee led to a lot of arguing over White House compliance with requests for information. Bottom line: The Obama administration is not as transparent as it promised to be so many years ago.
At the heart of the debate is a 2009 memo to government agencies which instructs them to forward any Freedom of Information Act requests to the White House for review.
The Associated Press recently did a study that showed up to 200,000 FOIA requests went unanswered by the White House last year. The AP also said that the information that does get released is oftentimes heavily redacted.
“If the White House general counsel tells all general counsels at every federal agency, ‘Hey, hey, before you send anything, check with us,’ of course they’re going to redact it. They’re scared to death,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
This isn’t the first White House to drag its feet on releasing information…