House Lawmakers Delve Into FOIA Overhaul, Scrutinize FCC Practices
The Sunshine in Government Initiative coalition lauded the House for its approval of the FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act Monday. HR-653 would overhaul government Freedom of Information Act procedures. "Yesterday’s vote to strengthen disclosure under FOIA shows that Congress can…
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find common ground to make government more transparent and accountable," said coalition director Rick Blum Wednesday. Coalition members included the American Society of News Editors, The Associated Press, the Newspaper Association of America and the Society of Professional Journalists. In a staff report released Monday, the House Oversight Committee slammed how the FCC used redactions in FOIA responses. “Perhaps more importantly, the FCC has insisted that the White House was not part of the deliberative process,” the House Oversight report said. “Chairman [Tom] Wheeler compared the White House’s comments to those of Members from Congress, calling them ‘recommendations.’ Redacting a description of the President’s opinion on this issue, as the version of the email released under FOIA does, is improper.” It questioned other redactions: “Without explanation, the FCC redacts the Chairman’s initials under a (b)(6) exemption. Every time 'TW' appears in the address line of an email it is redacted.” The FCC shows a “tendency to over-redact,” the committee staffers said. “The agency either misunderstands how to use redactions, raising concerns of competency, or the agency intentionally misuses redactions, raising concerns of integrity. Given the numerous examples in which the FCC improperly redacts information, this may be a deliberate tactic to withhold information from the public.” The committee posted more than a 100 pages of emails to show what the agency redacted.