Obama Reneges on Transparency Promises

During the federal fiscal year 2008, which ran from 1 October 2007 to 30 September 2008, the seventeen largest federal agencies rejected 312,683 requests for government transparency made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Fast forwards one year and the situation has become far worse. The number of rejected requests for federal transparency have increased from 312,683 to 466,872. This means that the Obama administration is roughly 50% more secretive than the Bush administration. These numbers are from the Associated Press, which is hardly a conservative organization.

According to data from a National Security Archive study, the Department of the Treasury, Department of Transportation, NASA, Department of State, and the National Reconnaissance Office were the most egregious offenders and among the agencies whose performance deteriorated significantly between 2008 and 2009.

Americans are not entirely ignorant of this reality. A poll released Sunday by The American Society of News Editors and the Scripps Howard News Service showed that 38% of Americans believe the Obama administration engages in “about the same amount of secrecy” as previous administrations. 34% believed that the Obama administration was being more transparent, while 22% understood that the Obama administration has been more secretive than it’s predecessors.

Improved transparency was one of the few Obama campaign promises that could actually have had positive effects for our nation, and it appears to have been the first that Obama discarded once the election was won.