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Return to Article: Obama's FOIA directive brings praise, bit of skepticism

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  Well of course the new President is all for openness in government so he can allow the use of FOIA to expose the evildoings of the Bush Administration. We'll see how he views FOIA a few years into this term when advocacy groups are requesting agency records on how HHS is developing a natioanl health care plan or whatever. FOIA staffing in most agencies will continue to be an afterthought; underfunded, understaffed and unappreciated.

  FOIA Professional Posted January 23, 2009 2:51 PM
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  Pretty funny that political hacks criticize W's alleged secrecy, when it was Clinton's attorney general and her justice department who put in place the most suppressive and secretive government information policies ever.

  Ron Posted January 23, 2009 1:25 PM
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  Phooey FOIA. I made FOIA requests that on appeal went clear to Washington D.C. The USDA never responded. The USDOI lost a request, and then when resubmitted, the FOIA Officer sent a letter stating that there would be an attempt to respond within the legally mandated timeframe; however, over six months have passed with no production of documents. At the same time, FOIA Officers will deny FOIA requests that are received by fax one minute after the deadline to submit such requests. Also, I submitted a FOIA request for e-mails and the BLM claims they do not have them (these records should have been maintained). On appeal, the USDOI notified me that the estimated bill for retrieving the e-mails would be $43,000! Hopefully with the change in administration there will be greater oversight, accountability, transparency, and staffing to better handle workloads.

  Paula Sutton Posted January 23, 2009 12:30 PM
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  I have no issue with FOIA so long as they continue to exclude personnel data. I have experience with a party attempting to gain information (via FOIA) from my wife's gov't personnel record. They weren't successful, but if our new pres opens that door, he may find himself loosing a lot of talented folks. I don't think he will, but who knows where he may be headed.

  Rustbucket Posted January 22, 2009 4:24 PM
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  FOIA for its intended purpose is great. But when a FOIA request comes in and wants every bit of communication that has went on between a Contractor and the Government on a large contract simply so they can try to get a competitive advantage when the contract comes up for re-competition is wasteful. Several weeks can be spent compiling such a list (I know, I've had to do it). Companies have turned the good intention of FOIA into a way to try to make money.

  Ugster Posted January 22, 2009 12:27 PM
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  I think this is a great step to allow need to know information available to the public. A Big Thank you to President Obama, to be about business, not just speak about business.

  Jacqueline Landrum Posted January 22, 2009 10:39 AM