Expose Obama » FOIA

Issa: Obama’s DHS Guilty of “Illegal Politicization”

Ben — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 23:07:16 +0000

Jordy Yager, The Hill

The Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report on Wednesday that details what he says are attempts by the Obama administration’s political appointees to thwart and delay the release of information.

The 153-page report, prepared by Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) committee staff, states that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process under President Obama is “less transparent and more politicized” than it was under President George W. Bush.

It includes excerpts of testimony before the panel from six officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and pulls from thousands of pages of agency documents and email exchanges that describe how political appointees have delayed responses to FOIA requests.

“Political appointees do not have a right to stop or delay releases of information through FOIA because they find them embarrassing, inconvenient, or politically sensitive,” Issa said in a statement. “There is no place for this kind of interference in a process designed to create transparency and accountability in government”…

The report asserts that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano oversaw the “illegal politicization” of the agency’s privacy office, which handles FOIA requests, and alleges that DHS tried to interfere with the panel’s eight-month-long investigation into the matter.

“Secretary Napolitano’s political staff attempted to frustrate the present investigation through official non-cooperation, witness tampering, and the attempted theft of committee documents,” states the report.

“Indeed, a cloud of administrative incompetence, illegal politicization and official obstruction now overshadows the front-line guarantor of American’s homeland security.”

Lawsuit: How Did HHS Create the ObamaCare Propaganda Commercials?

Ben — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:44:20 +0000

Judicial Watch

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the Obama Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to obtain records related to the creation and funding of advertisements pushing the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on March 23, 2011, which marked the one year anniversary of President Obama signing the Affordable Care Act into law.

On December 15, 2010, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with HHS seeking the following information: “All records concerning the creation and/or funding of advertisements on the Affordable Care Act.” On December 17, 2010, Judicial Watch received confirmation from HHS that its request was received. Judicial Watch received additional confirmation from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a component of HHS, on January 14, 2011. By law, a response to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request was due no later than February 14, 2011. However, to date, no documents have been produced. Moreover, HHS has failed to indicate when a response is forthcoming.

In November 2010, Judicial Watch separately obtained documents from the Obama Department of Health and Human Services regarding a series of three Medicare television advertisements featuring actor Andy Griffith. The Obama Administration spent $3,184,000 in taxpayer funds to produce and air the advertisements on national television in September and October 2010 to educate “Medicare beneficiaries, caregivers, and family members about forthcoming changes to Medicare as a result of the Affordable Care Act.”

However, according to FactCheck.org, a project of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, the advertisements intentionally misinform the American people….

Conflict of Interest? Obama Stonewalls on Kagan’s Role in ObamaCare

Ben — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 04:15:24 +0000

Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com

Fraud is the lingua franca of politics, a language cultivated and refined by generations of corrupt officials, grifters, and perjurers, but only a truly gifted practitioner can allow one unethical action to prepare the way for another. Only a master on the level of Barack Obama can align potentially illegal actions like chess moves, one deftly laying the groundwork for the next. The Justice Department has refused to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by CNSNews.com last May 25. As this author has noted, the administration appears to be selectively enforcing the law on FOIA requests, as with virtually everything else. While the administration rushes to provide liberals with the documents they request, it has delayed or denied conservative organizations like Judicial Watch, The Washington Times, and the English First Foundation.

Tired of such treatment, the Media Research Center has filed suit against the department. It seems clear why the administration may be wary of answering the CNSNews request: The news site seeks to determine whether Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is legally bound to recuse herself from hearing any case concerning ObamaCare. Kagan served as Obama’s solicitor general before being appointed to the Supreme Court last May. Her tenure in the administration included Obama’s signing of his health care reform bill. Two courts, in Virginia and Florida, have found this law unconstitutional, and the cases are….

Obama Gutting Freedom of Information Act

NewsEditor — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:23:02 +0000

Andrea Billups, Human Events

After taxpayers bailed out the financial sector amid much public outcry last year, political and open-government observers are wondering how the Securities and Exchange Commission will now be allowed to skirt certain Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests under a new federal law.

Tucked inside a bill revamping the financial industry, signed by President Obama on July 21, is a provision that allows an exemption for the SEC to ignore certain FOIA requests. The FOIA dodge came to light when journalists from Fox Business Network discovered the SEC’s new public records loophole, an action the network’s attorney dubbed “a backroom deal that was cut between Congress and the SEC to keep the SEC’s failures secret.”

Obama Labor Department Ignores Freedom of Information Act

NewsEditor — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:17:00 +0000

By Don Loos, Big Government

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is defiant and combative

On Friday, 20 November 2009, The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation (Foundation) decided enough was enough and filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court demanding that they compel the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to comply with the Foundation’s April 6th Freedom of information Act (FOIA) request.
The Foundation’s FOIA requested:

Records from communications and recorded events where specified Obama appointees and Big Labor official were present
Lists of lawsuits involving the Department of Labor and Deborah Greenfield within the past eight years.

List of any gifts received by Solis in the past 5 years from Big Labor or its officials

Specifically provide in detail (a) notes, (b) agreements, (c) communications, and (d) agendas related to the regulations related to the labor union and officer disclosure rules

Copies of phone logs

Copies of any notes or documents related to any enforcement of any labor laws and any outside groups such as labor unions, American Rights at Work, or ACORN

Obama’s Labor Department Ignores His Transparency Guidance
Remember January 21, 2009, when President Barack Obama proclaimed the new era of more open and transparent government began? This U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy memorandum is a good reminder:

On his first full day in office, January 21, 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum to the heads of all departments and agencies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The President directed that FOIA “should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.” Moreover, the President instructed agencies that information should not be withheld merely because “public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.”

Agencies were directed to respond to requests “promptly and in a spirit of cooperation.”