(Video Above: Rep. Gary Palmer questions journalists at a Oversight and Government Reform committee meeting)
WASHINGTON — Congressman Gary Palmer heard testimony Tuesday from investigative journalists, including former CBS journalist Sharyl Attkisson, on the importance of protecting the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in order to hold the federal government accountable.
Created in 1966, FOIA was implemented to ensure the public had access to information previously withheld by the government. According to Rep. Palmer and several of the journalists who gave testimony Tuesday, however, the federal bureaucracy charged with administering FOIA requests has become increasingly reticent to fulfill its duty.
“Congress created the Freedom of Information Act because, as Justice Brandeis believed, sunlight is one of the best disinfectants,” Palmer said. “FOIA was intended to be a tool to be used by everyday citizens and the media to hold their Government accountable, simply by making most government documents available upon request.
“However, as today’s hearing demonstrated, the public has not been afforded the full benefit of the law. Instead, they have faced unlawful denials, delays and stonewalling. This problem has been ongoing for some time, but it has accelerated under the Obama Administration. At the end of fiscal year 2014, nearly 160,000 requests were reported as backlogged. Even when documents are provided, they are often heavily redacted in ways that violate both the spirit and letter of the law.”
In Tuesday’s hearing, Palmer and other committee members heard from several members of the media who use FOIA requests as part of their investigative journalism.
Sharyl Attkisson, the former CBS investigative journalist who uncovered the Fast and Furious gun running scheme, and received threats from the Obama administration for her pursuit of the truth, gave testimony on the importance of strengthening FOIA and holding the government accountable to transparency.
“FOIA should be one of the most powerful tools of the public and the press in a free and open society,” Attkisson said in her testimony. “Instead, it’s largely a pointless, useless shadow of its intended self.
“Federal bureaucrats paid tax dollars to act on our behalf routinely break the law with impunity, treating public material as if it’s confidential, secret information to be controlled by a chosen few. They withhold it from us, its rightful owners, while sharing it with select partners such as corporations or other so-called ‘stakeholders.'”
Attkisson and the other journalists present at the hearing disclosed that the federal government has become painfully slow at fulfilling FOIA requests, to the point that courts have had to intervene. Often, when they do finally get the requested information, it has been heavily and unnecessarily “redacted beyond reason.”
“In 2014, when the State Department finally sent some documents responsive to a request I made in 2012, most of the content of relevant emails is redacted with the exception of the address line,” Attikisson revealed.
Palmer highlighted the importance of FOIA in Congress’s role holding the executive branch accountable.
“Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said ‘Excessive secrecy has significant consequences for the national interest when, as a result, policymakers are not fully informed, government is not held accountable for its actions, and the public cannot engage in informed debate,’” Palmer quoted. “I could not agree more. A culture of secrecy has seized the federal bureaucracy. Congress should work to change this culture through aggressive oversight and revisions to the law to ensure there is less abuse of the process.”
The Oversight and Government Reform committee will convene again Wednesday to question the Obama Administration officials charged with administering FOIA.
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
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