Democrats are supposed to be for government transparency, but critics of the Biden administration claim it is taking steps to hide its actions from the public and the media.
Many are pointing to Biden’s reversal of a Trump-era order requiring agencies to include links and other disclosure information on new regulations to help the public figure them out.
Proponents said it streamlines regulations, but critics said it puts federal actions in the shadows. “The move makes Biden the Edward Scissorhands of government transparency,” said Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., the regulation czar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said that the Trump administration disclosure policy is needed and that a similar legislative package was backed by then-Sen. Kamala Harris.
Meanwhile, agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are taking down Twitter and other social media accounts, and the press is starting to chafe at getting little access to Biden, who has yet to hold a press conference as president.
The campaign to erase Trump-era transparency shouldn’t be a surprise, however. During the Obama-Biden administration, similar efforts drew a sharp rebuke from media groups and news executives, including the former top editor of the Washington Post.
Crews and Johnson focused on Biden’s erasure of former President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13891, which was a dramatic bid to help people with federal regulations.
Crews blogged, “In its requirement that agencies create ‘a single, searchable, indexed database that contains or links to all guidance documents in effect,’ Trump’s order was one of the more significant advances in administrative disclosure yet seen. The Biden administration either believes that it does not promote rule of law for the public to enjoy ease of access to that to which they are bound, or they know and do not care.”
