E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSFrom NBC's Jason Seher
On Capitol Hill this morning, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, grilled Department of Homeland Security FOIA professionals, claiming that political appointees obstructed the widely used tool for gaining access to government documents.
The hearing centered on a delayed request filed by the Associated Press, which was investigating how DHS handles FOIA requests. Issa and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) repeatedly accused DHS of forwarding FOIA requests -- by certain media organizations and then minority members of Congress -- to political appointees within the department to review and redact the desired documents.
"This reeks of a Nixonian enemies list," Issa quipped.
Narrowing most of Chief FOIA and Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan's answers to a, "yes or no," Issa asserted she forwarded FOIA requests to DHS political appointees, who then evaluated the information based on how embarrassing or politically sensitive it was.
Despite Issa's claims, however, both the written committee findings and a report issued by the DHS inspector general found the privacy office did not engage in unfair or illegal politicization of FOIA requests. Throughout the hearing, Callahan insisted no FOIA requesters were disadvantaged because of their political party or area of interest.
"To my knowledge, no one other than a FOIA professional made a substantive change to a FOIA release," Callahan said. "The department was not engaging in spin. They just wanted to know what was in the documents."
The ranking Democrat on the committee, Elijah Cummings (D-MD) hedged on the issue. While admiting that DHS needs to respond to FOIA requests much faster, he dismissed Issa's claims of politicization, calling these "extreme accusations are unsubstantiated."
Leave a Comment:
Maybe Issa ought to look into the FOIA requests for the e-mails of University of Wisconsin history professor Bill Cronon because he had the audacity to try to find out exactly where the republicans' current anti-worker ideas are coming from.
Talk about Nixon-esque.
Look to your own house, Republican thugs.
Anna Molly
Maybe Issa ought to look into the FOIA requests for the e-mails of University of Wisconsin history professor Bill Cronon because he had the audacity to try to find out exactly where the republicans' current anti-worker ideas are coming from.
Talk about Nixon-esque.
Look to your own house, Republican thugs.
That's a good one Anna Molly
While Issa is looking he also might want to answer why he...
A) He tried To Kill A Landmark Expansion Of FOIA Law: In 2007, a bipartisan bill HR 1309 was proposed to expand the FOIA process, including a tracking system for submitters to view the status of their request, new reporting requirements for congressional oversight, and a provision to ensure that requests not processed within twenty days would not require a fee.
B) Helped Karl Rove And Bush Allies Hide Government E-Mails In RNC Accounts
http://issaexposed.couragecampaign.org/index.php/page/127
Like I said before and I'll say it again We are being Scammed.
I just heard only 400 meat head t-baggers showed up for the rally in D.C. to force Democrats to accept at least $61 billion in spending cuts.
Things Are Falling Apart for T-baggers.
True:
The new buzzword is "Extreme".....
I see even Cummings is using it now. I swear that man looks as though he has halitosis (shyt mouth). The next time he calls a Congressman extreme, maybe they should come back at him with "put one finger in your butt and one in your mouth" now close your eyes and smell. Tell us where each came from.
TA & ITM: we are being scammed by these extremists. ..... :)
Sorry Darrell, The GOP is to blame for Nixon and as for you, you just plain reek!
Typical Issa no substance.
Darrell Issa: "we don' need no steenkin FACTS!!!!!!!!!!"
I wondered when Issa was going to start his witch hunts. He's been promising since before the election. Apparently NOW is the time that Republicans decided they have something they need to distract from. Maybe it's their crazy plan to "improve" the economy by impoverishing the middle class. http://www.bluewavenews.com/2011/03/republican-plan-for-growing-economy-cut.html
I would say right around late fall of this year would be good. Just in time for all of the bad stuff on the Dems to come out before the election. Isn't that what it says in the Democrats playbook? I've been saying we should take pages from their playbook for a long time. :D
Obama accepted a transparency award from open-government advocates this week – during an unpublicized, closed-door meeting.
It was a strange conclusion to a two-week saga, in which the White House announced the award before canceling the ceremony at the last moment citing scheduling conflicts. The abrupt cancelation came as some questioned Obama's commitment to meet his campaign pledge on government openness.
"What I will not concede is that his record on the issue is anything but exemplary," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said amid mounting questions about the award.
The secrecy of the event reportedly puzzled some of those doling out the award to Obama. And other transparency advocates said the honor was premature at best.
"There is too much work left to be done to be handing out awards," Steven Aftergood, a transparency advocate who runs the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project, previously told The Washington Examiner. "Secrecy continues to be a problem, particularly the use of state secrets privilege to halt litigation on controversial topics. Efforts to use the [Freedom of Information] Act are frustrated by delays, incomplete disclosure and a frequent lack of response
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: #ixzz1ICVvxEp0
Bob-1887910
Booby trap
Last I heard the Obama administration is the more transparent than Georgie boy's.
The process became even tougher in October 2001 after a directive from John Ashcroft, the attorney general under Mr. Bush, which put the burden on the requester of sensitive information to show why it should be disclosed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/us/politics/15open.html
Not to mention the Washington Examiner is a right wing rag.
I'm curious I don't recall did George Bush getting any awards?
You heard????????
Of course you would hear that running in Liberal only circles.
NYT wrote that piece because they were told something was nunya (none of your business).
The burden should be on the requester, just like it is on those birther's.
I read this on the Drudge Report and my coke came out my nose I started laughing so hard. LOL!
So instead of working on job creation, Rep. Issa convenes a hearing to investigate claims which his own committee's investigators and an inspector general have already deemed do not have substance. There's a good use of time and resources.
Jobs? Hey, yeah.....
Jobs? Hey I've got mine. Where's yours?
signed Darrell
Actually, I think it's time to investigate Darryll Issa. Maybe Peter King can hold hearings about him, Issa looks suspicious, sort of foreign and has dark hair. This is getting as ridiculous as my last sentence. Anyone who is that determined as Issa is to spend every minute of his time in the hopes of finding something, anything probably might have a great deal to hide himself. Where was this guy during the Bush/Cheney years? There was a big giant pile of dung to investigate--oh, wait, he's a republican, they were republicans....
Jody:
...and when Obama is gone, you will find just as big of a pile. He will not be POTUS forever and they ALL leave with skeletons. A POLITICIAN IS A POLITICIAN no matter how he/she is dressed.
They are all doing what politicians do. When you accept that fact, you won't have headaches and your whining will be to a minimum. There is nothing you can do to change them at this moment with your 1 vote. 45% of the country will always vote Dem and 45% willl always vote Rep, that leaves you with 7% that really lean one way or the other and maybe 3% that are truly independent. If you look at Obama's election it wasn't really an overwhelming victory, he won that 3% plus a few Republicans that hated McCain enough to vote for Obama, oh and the guilty white that believed this would square up all of the atrocities African Americans suffered from.
I agree Jody. This is the kind of "politics as usual" that has Congress at such low approval ratings. It must work with their base but to me it is a huge waste of resources.
The President will win again in 2012. The country is getting a good lesson on how the Republicans -Tea Baggers operate.
Also, in my city of 83,000 it was reported that the registered Democrats has gone up from 48% to 54% and the Republicans down from 24% to 19%, with the rest being registered Independent.
And I just saw a poll that said 71% thought Obama did not deserve to be re-elected. Are your polls good and the ones I read stink or do all polls stink?
I'm so embarrassed that this guy, Issa, is from California. Sorry folks! He is trying to take a rectal exam to find something wrong with Obama's administration. He himself is a criminal. An arsonist. A larsonist. In short a felon. His resume is full of trouble throughout his young and adult life. Nothing stuck but he has too much not to own it.