A nonpartisan watchdog group has filed suit against eleven federal agencies and the White House Office of Counsel over the Obama administration’s alleged practice of obstructing Freedom of Information Act requests.
The suit, filed in the District Court for Washington, D.C. on Monday by the nonpartisan group Cause of Action, alleges that the executive branch has systematically obstructed FOIA requests since a 2009 memo issued by then-White House Counsel Gregory Craig. The memo, issued to all federal agencies, “reminded” them to consult with the counsel’s office on all document requests involving White House “equities.”
Since that time, Cause of Action stated, record requests involving topics of interest to the White House have been improperly sent to the counsel’s office for review, even when they have not involved “FOIA exemptions and privileges.”
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The group argues that the White House has used the maneuver to prevent agencies from responding to requests in a timely manner, stating that it has made a number of FOIA requests for production of documents “to several federal agencies that have been or will continue to be delayed due to the ‘White House equities’ review practice.”
One example cited by the group is an August 2013 request submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency turned the request over to the White House six months later, where it has been retained for more than two years without any word as to its status.
“Pre-production clearance of FOIA productions by the White House is a departure from past FOIA practices,” states the Monday filing. “The current practice that causes delay is not supported by statutory or other authority. When the White House is slow to respond, the parties filing the FOIA requests must wait. This delays final determination on FOIA requests and the prompt production of responsive documents far past FOIA statutory deadlines.”
The group is asking the the court to compel a response from DHS to the 2013 FOIA request, and to enjoin agencies from abiding by the 2009 memo commanding them to seek instruction from the White House. Other agencies named in the suit include Defense, Interior, Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, State, Transportation, Treasury, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
A separate report published in March found that the Obama administration denied a record 77 percent of FOIA requests that were filed in 2015. The number included 250,024 instances in which officials said they couldn’t find records, an individual refused to pay for copies, or the government denied the request as unreasonable or improper.
White House Spokesman Josh Earnest responded at the time by turning attention to the legislative branch, which granted itself an exemption when it passed the 1960 law. “Congress writes the rules and they write themselves out of being accountable,” Earnest said, saying that pressure should be applied to impose “the same kinds of transparency rules” on members of Congress “that they insist other government agencies follow.”
