A group that rates the transparency of government finds that President Obama’s administration is subpar in one key area: fulfillment of requests for documents made under the Freedom of Information Act.
Cause of Action gives the president White House a grade of “C-minus,” Breitbart reports. And while that score is technically passing, it’s a far cry from what Mr. Obama boasted would be the norm for his administration, when he campaigned for office.
The group is going to post its findings on a new website creation, to be called Grading the Government.
“For an administration that claims to be, ’the most transparent administration in history,’ a grade of C-, coupled with the finding that nearly three quarters of the offices were unable to respond to our request within a 30 day window and therefore noncompliant with the law, signals that perhaps this administration is merely average at best,” Cause of Action wrote in a report released on Wednesday morning, and reported by Breitbart
The group tested 114 federal offices in 16 different agencies for FOIA compliance. It sent requests for documents beginning in April 2012. Twenty-nine offices have yet to provide any papers at all, Breitbart reports. Twenty-six took longer than the 90 days that are allowed by law to respond. And of the 86 that did respond – most took longer than 75 days, Cause of Action said.
The law is FOIA requests must be responded to within 30 days.
SEE ALSO: Obama’s FOIA lag draws fire from left and right
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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