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02/06/2008 @ 8:25 am

Bush 'kills' Freedom of Information Act

compliance officer
Filed by RAW STORY

Buried on page A17 of Wednesday's Washington Post is a bit of a non-surprise:

President George W. Bush has effectively killed a position monitoring compliance with
government efforts to release documents.
Late last year, Washington watchdogs won over a reluctant President Bush, who
agreed to sign a law enforcing better compliance with the Freedom of Information
Act.
"But in his budget request this week," the Post's Elizabeth Williamson writes, "Bush
proposed shifting a newly created ombudsman's position from the National Archives
and Records Administration to the Department of Justice. Because the ombudsman
would be the chief monitor of compliance with the new law, that move is akin to
killing the critical function, some members of Congress and watchdog groups say."
"Justice represents the agencies when they're sued over FOIA . . . It doesn't make a
lot of sense for them to be the mediator," staff lawyer for the National Security
Archive Kristin Adair told the Post. The group has filed suit against the White House
to force it to preserve e-mails relating to Iraq and the outing of CIA officer Valerie
Plame Bush's spokesman says may have been lost.
Also bemoaning the revelation was Senate Democratic Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy
(D-VT).
"Once again, the White House has shown they intend to act contrary to the intent of
Congress," Leahy told Williamson in a statement. "I will continue to work through the
appropriations process to make sure that the National Archives and Records
Administration has the necessary resources and funds to comply with the OPEN
Government Act, and we will continue to work in Congress to make necessary
reforms to the Freedom of Information Act."
The White House said, through a spokesman, that "only the Department of Justice, as
the government's lead on FOIA issues and mediation in legal matters, is properly
situated and empowered to mediate issues between requestors and the federal
government."
The law Bush signed last year -- the Open Government Act of 2007 -- requires that
government agencies released information Americans request within 20 days of face
fines. Bush inked the law New Year's Eve. The ombudsman's office would hear
disputes over unmet requests and monitor the agencies facing examinations.
Under the planned deployment, the ombudsman was to be part of the National
Archives, where most documents eventually end up and are usually sent out from.
The Bush Administration is already under pressure from Congress for its alleged
politicization of the Justice Department. Nine US Attorneys were fired for what
Democrats say were "political" reasons; the White House has refused to allow aides
to testify to Congressional committees about what they know.