President should embrace FOIA on 50th anniversary

Freedom of information is one of the most-important pillars of a true democracy. It is the antithesis of a closed society in which the people are denied any access to their government.

The United States leads the free world in guaranteeing its citizens’ right to know about the inner workings of the public sector. Yet, the Freedom of Information Act, signed into law on July 4, 1966, remains a work in progress.

While there is enough blame to go around for the lack of total transparency, President Barack Obama bears responsibility for the unacceptably high number of censored government files or outright denial of access to them.

Independent studies have shown that the federal government took longer to turn over files when it did provide them, regularly claimed it couldn’t find documents and refused on numerous occasions to quickly turn over files that could have been newsworthy.

This record is especially troubling because President Obama came into office promising “the most-transparent administration ever.”

UNKEPT PROMISE

It’s a promise that has yet to be kept – and time is running out. As Obama serves his final year in office, he must know that he will be judged not only by his legislative accomplishments – without a doubt the Affordable Care Act tops the list – but by how committed he was to the Freedom of Information Act.

To date, his record falls short. But the president can win over a skeptical press and a disgruntled citizenry by ending his administration’s opposition to bipartisan measures in the House and Senate that would institute important reforms to FOIA.

Indeed, with the act turning 50 in four months, Obama should join the growing ranks of freedom-of-information advocates. The president should publicly pledge to sign the legislation that was introduced in 2014.

The Senate and House passed their versions of the FOIA reform bill – with bipartisan support – but there wasn’t a final vote on a reconciled measure.

There are reports that the Obama administration and several government agencies worked behind the scenes to throw up roadblocks.

That’s cause for concern because an important aspect of the 2014 legislation was the incorporation of the president’s own transparency pledge when he first took office.

In an executive memorandum signed on his first day in office in 2009, Obama mandated that all agencies “adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open government.”

But members of Congress who have been at the forefront of the reform movement haven’t given up. Last year. The FOIA Improvement Act of 2015 was introduced with strong bipartisan support. The legislation is a response to the Obama administration’s shoddy record of responding to requests for information or documents under FOIA.

BACKLOG SNOWBALLS

Indeed, the backlog of unanswered requests at the end of 2015 grew remarkably by 55 percent to more than 200,000.

And of interest to the public, the administration acknowledged that in nearly 1 in 3 cases its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law. The decisions were reversed only after they were challenged.

President Obama cannot be blind to the fact that his administration is viewed as one of the most opaque in recent memory. He must also be aware that secrecy in government simply serves to raise suspicions of wrongdoing on the part of government officials.

And, it sets a bad example to state and local governments and other public entities that aren’t exactly paragons of virtue when it comes to openness.

The Radio Television Digital News Association, formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association, is one of the leaders of the campaign to reform and update the Freedom of Information Act.

In a letter to members of the Senate, the organization wrote, “Now is the time for Congress to enact improvements to FOIA that will enhance government transparency and accountability.”

A similar pitch should be made by the White House, with President Obama expressing his desire to sign a reform bill on July 4, when the landmark law celebrates its 50th anniversary.