A congressional panel is investigating the possibility that Obama administration political appointees have unduly interfered with Freedom of Information Act requests.
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee is looking into “any involvement by non-career officials in the FOIA process” across agencies, according to a letter published this week by the Department of Defense inspector general.
The probe has led committee chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to ask federal inspectors general to look into the matter. It was sparked by “media reports of specific cases at the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security,” according to the Department of Transportation IG’s response to Johnson.
In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, improperly influenced department moves to block FOIA requests, including inquiries about the Keystone XL Pipeline. The article moved Johnson’s colleague, Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), to ask the State Department about how it handles public records requests.
Several agencies’ inspectors general have already replied to Johnson. Chief watchdogs at the Department of Transportation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Commerce, and the Environmental Protection Agency have already told the committee chair that they found no evidence of political appointees interfering in their departments’ responses to FOIA requests.
Johnson might not accept the inspector generals’ answers as the unvarnished truth, however. In June, he said the inspector generals “are not truly independent, as they can be removed by the agency at any time.” He described them as “at greater risk of compromising their work to appease the agency or the president.”
