Reporters to Testify About Federal Government’s Freedom of Information Act Violations

Reporters almost always attend hearings in the various committees of the House of Representatives.

But tomorrow they will be there in an unusual role—as witnesses to talk about the extensive barriers to accessing government information through the Freedom of Information Act.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform plans a two-day hearing to investigate why the law has failed to a large extent to increase government transparency and to look at the ways it hinders “effective access” to public information.

Sharyl Attkisson, a correspondent for The Daily Signal, former CBS investigative reporter and one of the journalists testifying tomorrow, has long covered the Obama administration’s mistreatment of the law. Her 2014 book “Stonewalled” cited the administration’s “entitled” disposition toward the information federal agencies gather and argued for renewed transparency.

Attkisson will join Vice News investigative reporter Jason Leopold, Newsweek investigative reporter Leah McGrath Goodman and New York Times assistant general counsel Dave McCraw in an attempt to push reform.

President Obama touted his dedication toward increasing transparency through the Freedom of Information Act in a 2009 memorandum.

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“The government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears,” the president said.

But evidence in recent years reveals a slide in the administration’s commitment to openness.

The Associated Press wrote in March that, in 2014, the Obama administration set a record for the second year in a row for withholding the most government files. It also found nearly one in three cases regarding the government’s decision to withhold information violated the act.

The committee cited the 67 percent increase in backlogged Freedom of Information Act cases during 2014 as reason for investigation, as well as the response to producing Hillary Clinton’s emails while she was secretary of state and emails related to Lois Lerner and the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups.

The second day of the hearing will consist of testimony from federal agencies, but those witnesses have not yet been listed.