Blog Posts and Analysis / Open, Accountable Government

$28 Billion Question Mark

The Pentagon has spent almost all of the $28.5 billion in “emergency-response” funds allocated to them by Congress in the year after the September 11th attacks. However, almost nothing is available to the public explaining how the taxpayer’s money was spent. Apparently, even confidential reports to congressional staff leave too many questions about the expenditures unanswered.

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FBI Finally Returns Illegally Confiscated Package

An Associated Press package that was illegally confiscated, as reported in a March 24 OMB Watcher article, was finally returned to the AP after 7 months. The FBI returned the package on May 11, with general counsel Patrick Kelley acknowledging that they had mishandled the material. An internal disciplinary inquiry is taking place, as well as the development of guidelines on handling news media material.

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Data Quality Counter-Challenge

Recently, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service received their first challenge under the Data Quality Act. Soon after, they also received a precedent-setting counter-challenge. While several agencies have received a variety of challenges under the Data Quality Act, none have received a counter-petition.

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Justice Order Gags Whistleblowers

The Justice Department issued a directive on March 27th tightening their oversight of employee contact with Congress. Employees are directed to inform the Office of Legislative Affairs "ahead of time and as soon as possible - of all potential briefings on Capitol Hill and significant, substantive conversations with staff and members on Capitol Hill." This requirement would include phone calls. The office would clear Congressional contacts and liaison officials would accompany employees to briefings.

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Supreme Court Vacates and Remands FOIA Case

The Supreme Court was scheduled to hear oral arguments early last month in the first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case (United States Department of Justice v. City of Chicago) to reach the Supreme Court in years. However, just days before the March 4 oral argument the Supreme Court cancelled the hearing, removed the case from its docket, and ordered the lower court's judgment vacated. This is the second time in recent years that a last minute development has removed a FOIA case from the Supreme Court's docket.

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Administration Attempts to Re-classify 9-11 Information

The current Administration's propensity for secrecy is evidenced once again by the recent move against disclosure of the joint congressional report on September 11th. The over 800 page long investigative document was completed last December, with only a limited list of findings made public. Intelligence officials have taken a strong stance against any additional disclosure.

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Efforts Made to Expand Critical Infrastructure Information

The Department of Defense (DoD) has wasted no time in attempting to get a Critical Infrastructure Information (CII) exemption to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) similar to the CII provisions for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) within the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The dust hasn’t yet settled on the massive DHS reorganization, nor have its CII rules been formalized, much less evaluated, but already DoD has decided that this program merits replication.

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