we tried to improve foia. also examine proposals to reform foia to address new technologies that were not even imagined at the time it was written. and the challenges that remain with citizens seeking information about their government. five years after president obama issued presidential directives in foia in open government with hey spend some progress. backlogs of requests are on the decline. a trend started during this first time. online tools such at date.gov. foia.gov. an i.t. working group to monday concernize it. it's a step in the right direction but we all have to agree there's more that remains to be done and i feel that much of the progress has come too slowly. created the responsiveness of the 15 federal agencies to process the moist foia requests, found that half of these agencies earn a passing grade. another impediment to the process, the growing list of exemptions to withhold information from the public. according to the 2013 secrecy act, federal agencies used foia exemption five to withhold i

it's not even just foia. we are talking about a big trend in all forms of information control, excessive p5 all controls of the federal agencies, state and local government. it's everywhere and this trend has been going on for 40 years. the research is supported. the body of evidence. there may be focuses that say otherwise but it's just not supported overall big turn. i sound like a climate change scientists from the 1980s, but i'm telling you something is amiss and unless we do pushback against it, it's going to be pretty bad. >> professor metcalfe, in your testimony you talked about the exemptions. do you agree with the other two witnesses? [inaudible] -- there are service problems. if you want to have a list to focus in priority fashion, i would suggest six things in total. one, that there needs to be focused on the limitation of the foreseeable harms stand which by the way is if a specific concrete thing but that's how we implement it in the clinton administration, not with some more for storm such as pr

foia is one of the best and only tools we have to fight secrecy and foia is broken. >> suing the nsa. and a democracy now! exclusive, one of the nation's most prolific transparency activists, ryan shapiro, reveals he is suing the nsa, fbi, and defense intelligence agency in an attempt to force the agencies to open the records detailing how the u.s. secretly helped apartheid south africa capture leadingandela in 1962, to his 27 years in prison. we will also speak with ryan shapiro about why the fbi considers his academic research on the animal rights movement a threat to national security. all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the obama administration is preparing to ask congress to reform the national security agency's own collection of phone records -- one of the most controversial nsa practices exposed by edward snowden. "the new york times," setting an end officials, says the proposal would leave the bulk data in the hands of phone companies. to obtain specific records, the nsa would seek permission from

it's one individual submitting a foia request and the see gets to rule on the foia request and then io sue and then a judge adjudicates the case. i'm going to quote from les aspen who was involved in the 1974 amendments of the freedom of information act, quote, surely we are familiar by now with the extent to which any document tending to embarrass any agency tends to become top secret. the managers of those classification stamps have forfeited presumptions that their actions were reasonable. >> on that note, i have to taken all of our guests because we're out of time. until next time waj and i will see you online at aljazeera.com/ajamstream. ♪ >>> good evening, everyone, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. the deadline for health care coverage. the last chance to sign up brings more glitches. obamacare, what now? our special report just ahead. >>> under fire, allegations that general motors and now federal regulators repeatedly ignored safety issues. >>> after a stern new warning to the world about

well, we have had problems with foia with them.here is an article that they flunked the foia test. then you now you also have the ambassador issue. they say they are going to be different. >> indeed, susan, thank you. >> thanks. okay, let's all go off-the-record for just a minute. on january 21, 2009, the day after president obama took the oath of office for his first term, he signed a memorandum with specific emphasis on enforcement of the freedom of information act. the president directed the executive branch to act cooperatively and in the spirit of cooperation when asking for information. the president's order emphasized the importance of transparency making the government open to its citizens. that was five years ago. and, well, apparently it's been down hill since. this is a being if a. the government does not respond promptly. and completely to foia requests. and it does not comply swiftly to a subpoena. instead, the government dodges the law by dragging its feet, making up excuses and so, consider this: the irs won't surren

it goes a lot deeper than problems with the foia.ou can see where they are having a lot of problems. gregg: let me bring up another one. kathleen sebelius, the head of health and human services testifying several days ago on the affordable care act and numbers there, bragging how many they actually enrolled but then she is asked the question, how many of those enrollees actually paid she said i don't know. that information is readily known. the states produce it. i have that information. it's curious that she doesn't have that information. again, does it go to secretive and non-transparent practices? >> absolutely. i think you have a lot of reporters that have complained when they try to get information directly out of hhs they have sometimes run into difficulty doing that part of what you see here, there is a problem with the process and how foia requests are being processed. one thing that the administration would change exemptions that you have underneath there, one most commonly used deliberative process. that is ambiguous exempt

. >> had you to make a foia request.ernment didn't just hand it over. >> these reports are not public unless you ask for them and you have to know what you are asking for. these people, they just get away with it and then it's filed away quietly unless somebody digs. >> any idea if this is going all over the government? i mean, i realize this is one foia request. but any tip it's going on other places? >> as you said this is one foia requests and so many other examples of this happening at other agencies. >> it's amazing. >> thank you. great story. good work. >> thank you. >> let's all go off-the-record for a minute. if attorney general eric holder doesn't have enthusiasm for his job to fight all crime, protect us, including our tax dollars. why doesn't he just go. not prosecuting manager got caught stealing $45,000. using government credit card for gambling, rental cars, personal things and each wrongful use of her credit card is a separate felony. so, why isn't she and everyone else being slapped with a grand jury indi

unvarnished -- which is to say, no self-censorship on the part of advisers -- if that is subject to foialaws, there is a risk. the white house isn't just communications with the president. among the problems facing america, i wouldn't put toward the top of the list the fact that communications that involve internal discussions at the white house are not in the public domain. >> in talking about your book, the nsa report, what you do with other authors, there is this quote. "americans must never make the mistake of wholly trusting our public officials." after you have now been in the white house, the justice department earlier, what do you think that statement? >> i completely agree with that statement. i stand by that. one of the glories of our system is that we don't fully trust our officials, even if we served on the same faculty with them. i am a big fan of president obama. i do trust him. let's put that to one side. our tradition is one of, really, is that true? that has helped keep us to -- us free. >> i have a copy of one of your books, "why knowledge -- nudge?" "why nudge? the pol

in a report about the freedom of information act request, otherwise known as foias, they found the obamatration censored or outright denied access to government files, cited more legal exceptions to justify withholding materials and refused a record number of times to turn over files that might be especially news worthy. in fact, the government's efforts to be more open about its activities last year were their worst since president obama took office. >> vladimir putin puts the gears in motion to annex crimea. the fox all stars weigh in next. yep, everybody knows that. well, did you know the ancient pyramids were actually a mistake? uh-oh. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. millions have raised their hand for the proven relief of the purple pill. and that relief could be in your hand. for many, nexium helps relieve heartburn symptoms from acid reflux disease. find out how you can save at purplepill.com. there is risk of bone fracture and low magnesium levels. side effects may include headache, abdominal pain, and diarrhea if you have persisten

according to the associated press, the white house denied or partially censored 36% of foia requests. in a record 57% of cases, the administration cited grounds of national security. upon first taking office, president obama has vowed to make his administration "the most open and transparent in history." a group of fast food workers rallied in front of a new york city mcdonald's on tuesday in support of lawsuits accusing the company of wage theft. employees filed suit in three states, accusing mcdonald's and its franchises of stealing their wages through a range of illegal practices. workers accusations include being forced to work while off the clock, having hours deleted from their time cards, and being denied meal and rest breaks. one worker said he had been consistently overworked and underpaid. >> my name is franklin, i am 25 years old. i work over 30 hours a week at mcdonald's. i work at mcdonald's to make ends meet, but i have also been a victim of wage theft. it has to stop. i have never been paid the state mandated the, but for months, i have also been forced to work off the

and ensures that all agencies utilize the website foia online to log, track and publish the status of requests. finally, the t.g.a. calls for the judiciary branch to meet similar financial disclosure requirementes that are already applied to the executive and legislative branches and make those disclosure statements publicly available online for anyone to review. for the first time this bill inscribes into law the public's right to hear oral arts in the supreme court as they are delivered. and in an effort to use 21st century technologies, this legislation calls for a study on using life stream video to air supreme court proceedings. these are just a few of the bills many reforms that will pull our government out of the past and modernize public access to information. the transparency and government act has ambitious goals, but these reforms are no less than what our constituents expect and deserve. it's been four years since i first introduced this bill, and we can't waste another minute allowing the status quo to erode the american faith in government. the time to act is now. let's

so the foia to sch to to adjust production when when when when when they come in and went in the monkey's know they would just say one thing to me i'd leave it to do with the disease. is a dangerous place but still that it's not really new. the point is that the word is a competitive class. it's an increasingly competitive. and the energy structure the energy costs a key element of his competitiveness fight so to speak between nations and a fleet is to be taken of costumed and the like of danger that goes when the light. i'm addicted. so that when i regard what is it safe the future of nuclear power. whether this is probably that they would dispute that the present day would be a cap that bb because of the risks associated with new comply with the band would ask if i'd pulled into two dimensions and the nobles and onstage as long as you can its toll physically he's only a very very partial answer to that question. but just circle. we heard the european commission a few months back announce suddenly that to the targets for renewable energies would have to be revised downwards. that said he

it's true that a lot of those documents were the subject of foia litigation but how much redact and what you disclose depends on judgments that are made in terms of how transparent you can afford to be while still protecting the underlying secrets. intimate documents may have been disclosed without authorization but is still a judgment call as to what you can and should continue to disclose through official channels. those are difficult determinations that are made after a lot of care so the documents that are posted on the record to reflect a forward-leaning attitude that the president has directed the intelligence committee to to take on transparency and are trying to take the best that we can. again it's not perfect and it's going to take time for us to reorient ourselves to be more a lined with transparency. i asked people to be patient. i also asked people to understand that in order to be effective we have to find ways to continue to keep secrets. >> we have a bunch of excellent questions from our extremely informed and thoughtful national constitutional center audience and we are

those grades were based on how well those agencies processed foia requests, established rules and create user friendly websites. >> one of the ten commandments was broken here. inside joel osteen's church in houston, a thief making off with $600,000 from the mega church. the suspect breaking into a safe filled with cash, checks and credit card numbers. those who attended the charge this past weekend and donated their money are being asked to check their accounts for suspicious activity. oh my. those are your headlines. >> joel osteen, he smiles all the time. this may be the one thing that made him frown. >> you may be right about that. >> such a nice guy. >> coming up straight ahead at 11 minutes after the hour, the senate races in arkansas takes an you ugly turn when a democrat attacked the republican's military service. >> i think this sense of entitlement he gives off is almost like i served my country, therefore, let me into the senate. that is not how it works inarka. >> mark pryor refusing to explain himself. details ahead. >> one dog, two dogs. how many? hmmm... look at that as th