At the outset of his presidency, President Obama signed a memorandum to all federal departments and agencies declaring his support for the Freedom of Information Act. He directed that “all agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to usher in a new era of Open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA.”
It appears, however, that his Treasury Department appointees didn’t get the memo because for months Treasury has resorted to unexplained delays and other questionable tactics to avoid making public thousands of documents related to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. The documents were requested by Bloomberg News and Judicial Watch, among other news and public interest groups.
