Senate report shows EPA FOIA abuses

Senate report shows EPA FOIA abuses

At least one federal agency’s approach to transparency is now known to be a sham. According to a lengthy senate report, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was responsible for years of intentional cover-ups and misdirection. Rather than properly complying with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the report shows an organized attempt to confuse and mis-inform. Is this the transparency in government president Obama was elected to provide?

(pictured: former administrator Lisa Jackson )

From The Washington Examiner:

Environmental Protection Agency officials have from the beginning of President Obama’s tenure in the Oval Office “pursued a path of obfuscation, operating in the shadows, and out of the sunlight,” according to a Senate report.

The report by Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee provides a detailed description of violations of the Freedom of Information Act and other federal laws and regulations meant to encourage transparency and accountability in the government.

“The agency established an alias identity to hide the actions of the former administrator; has purposefully been unresponsive to FOIA request, oftentimes redacting information the public has a right to know; and mismanaged its electronic records system such that federal records have been jeopardized,” the report said.

“Moreover, EPA’s leadership abandoned the historic model of a specialized public servant who seeks to fairly administer the law and has instead embraced a number of controversial tactics to advance a secretive agenda,” the report said.

Do you think the EPA should be held to the same standard as the rest of government when it comes to Freedom of Information Act requests? What does this agency feel the need to conceal?

Source: The Washington Examiner
Photo: Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa P. Jackson, by Eric Vance, EPA photographer


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