Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Has Obama delivered the ‘most transparent’ administration in history?

In other respects, however, the Obama administration has erred on the side of secrecy rather than transparency. In some cases, blame could be placed on recalcitrant agencies in the giant federal bureaucracy. For instance, 55 of 101 independently audited agencies in 2013 still had not adopted Obama’s new FOIA standard. But blame also can be placed on the administration itself.
The visitors log. Although the administration announced in 2009 that it would disclose details (names, dates) from the White House visitors log, there were vaguely worded exceptions. And when White House officials wanted to keep meetings with certain people off the record, they met them at nearby cafes and townhouses. After this practice became known, officials fought against disclosure in court, arguing that the names and dates were immune to FOIA requests.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/03/16/has-obama-delivered-the-most-transparent-administration-in-history/ 

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