By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009)
Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone
According to Don Loos writing at Breitbart.com the Secretary of Labor (SOL) and her crew seem to care not one iota about their duty to respond to a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request. The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation filed an action in United States District Court on November 20th, asking the court to compel the SOL to comply with a FOIA request submitted to the Department of Labor (DOL) in April of this year.
According to the suit, the DOL has neither sent the information requested, nor have they indicated when the request is to be honored. FOIA requests under federal law are to be fulfilled within 20 working days or at least, the party served must indicate why it cannot be returned with the requested material. We all remember that President Obama pledged an open and responsive administration and went to pains to record his promise through the United States Department of Justice‘s Office of Information Policy through this memorandum as provided in Mr. Loo’s article:
On his first full day in office, January 21, 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum to the heads of all departments and agencies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The President directed that FOIA “should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.” Moreover, the President instructed agencies that information should not be withheld merely because “public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.”
Agencies were directed to respond to requests “promptly and in a spirit of cooperation.” The President also called on agencies to “adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure” and to apply that presumption “to all decisions involving [the] FOIA.” This presumption of disclosure includes taking “affirmative steps to make information public,” and utilizing “modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government.”
It is difficult to determine why DOL has seen fit to ignore the FOIA request and theirPresident’s dictates. Perhaps, the rest of the story will reveal “what evil lurks in the minds of men” … or women. As Mr. Loos continues his story, and if we examine all the documents provided by the links in his story, it probably will not be difficult to see where the rub is. Click here for the rest of the story (see story here). Please click on the link below if you want to fall out of your chair.
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
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