beyond ordering the presumption of openness for foia the obama administration issued a national action plan to establish a consolidated foia portal and enhanced training for foia professionals. president obama did that. established a foia advisory committee to improve implementation, increase proactive disclosures of government information. president obama did that. the administration implemented a new policy of disclosing white house visitor records. president obama did that. established ethics data.gov which posts lobbying, disclosure reports, travel reports and federal elections commission filings all in one place and it has made enormous amounts of government information available through data.gov. that's right. president obama did that. finally i suspect some of my colleagues will continue their focus on former secretary of state hillary clinton and her e-mail. let's review the facts. on december 5th 2014, secretary clinton provided more than 30,000, 30,000 e-mail totaling about 55,000 pages to the state department. the department has those e-mail and is currently reviewing them t

he had previously served as a foia officer at a food and drug administration. and let me read to you what he said. require agency representation at the highest level possible when the individual is also the most knowledgeable. past experience has shown that not every chief foia officer has the skill set since this is by definition not necessarily that individual's specialty. ms. barr, i'll start with you, do you agree with mr. sadler's comment? >> i think it would depend on how that person, you know each agency organizes this issue differently. for the state department i'm the chief foia officer but i also have a lot of other responsibilities. so i have an deputy assistant secretary who is an expert in the issues and i consult closely with that person. >> what about exchange of ideas across agency lines? do you believe sharing of information about agency experience and their ideas and own best practices, what they have done right or wrong would improve the implementation of foia. would the foia officers have a view on that? >> i can certainly tell you that we de

foia program. i'm looking at it now. it's inspection of the administration global information services office of information programs and services. and the report states and i quote, the department's foia process is inefficient and ineffective. are you familiar with this report? >> yes i am. >> i know you've only been on the job just a few months when it was issued, but i want to ask you a little more about it. it focused on the department of program and services. that office is within the bureau of administration, i understand. and you serve as the assistant secretary for that bureau. is that correct? >> yes, that is correct. >> i'd like to go through some of the issues raised in the report. it's said about the office of information programs and services -- i just want to quote the report. neglect of relationship responsibilities has had profound consequences. the oig's team has seen the responses to oig's questionnaires indicated an office with problematic morale favoritism, micromanagement practices. this concerns me. i understand you'd only been on the j

beyond ordering the presumption of openness for foia the obama administration issued a national action plan to establish a consolidated foia portal and enhanced training for foia professionals. president obama did that. established a foia advisory committee to improve implementation, increase proactive disclosures of government information. president obama did that. the administration implemented a new policy of disclosing white house visitor records. president obama did that. established ethics data.gov which posts lobbying, disclosure reports, travel reports and federal elections commission filings all in one place and it has made enormous amounts of government information available through data.gov. that's right. president obama did that. finally i suspect some of my colleagues will continue their focus on former secretary of state hillary clinton and her e-mail. let's review the facts. on december 5th 2014, secretary clinton provided more than 30,000, 30,000 e-mail totaling about 55,000 pages to the state department. the department has those e-mail and is currently reviewing them t

office of information policy during fiscal year 2014 there were 3,838 full-time foia staff devoted to the administration of foia throughout the government. we understand that that is a 9% decrease in the amount of full-time foia staff from year before, but does that figure sound correct? ms. pustay: it certainly is not the size of oip, we're about 43 people at oip. ms. plaskett: throughout government to handle foia request. ms. pustay: definitely the staffing level across the government have decreased. ms. plaskett: how does that impact the processing of the foia requests? ms. pustay: >> we're trying very hard to find ways to gain efficiencies in processing utilizing technology and that's a big factor that we've been, a big area where we've been putting emphasis and there are efficiencies to be gained with technology but at the end of day, you do need trained foia professionals who can analyze documents for disclosability and so there is no substitute for personnel to handle requests. ms. plaskett: so it's your belief that having additional staff to process these backlogs, as well as the additional foia

he's previously served as a foia officer at the food and drug administration. let me read to you what he said. it would seem appropriate to to require recommendation at the highest level when the person is knowledgeable. past experiences shown that not every chief foia officer has the skill set since this is by definition not necessarily that individual's specialty. ms. barr, i'll start with you. do you agree with mr. sadler's comment? ms. barr: i think it would depend on how that person -- you know, each agency organization this issue differently. for the state department i'm the chief foia officer, but i also have a lot of other responsibilities so i have a deputy assistant secretary that is an expert in these issues and i consult very closely with that person. ms. norton: what about the exchange of ideas across agency lines? do you believe that sharing of information about agency experience and their ideas, the best practices, what they've done right or wrong would improve the implementation of foia? would the foia officers have a view on that? ms. pustay: i

aggressively blocked. >> if you cannot get information from the foia request, the public is in the dark. >> right. which is exactly what this administration. that's why they stone walled all these foia requests or slow walked the requests. look this administration has done so many things time and again over the years where they have taken major policy issues whether it's obamacare or more recently this trade bill, and they blocked it from the public eye. remember we have to pass it to know what's in it? members of congress on the trade bill have to go into a private locked room to read this massive bill. i think the reason is why, that this administration this president is so far to the left if congress and the american people and reporters were actually telling the public what was in these bills or what this administration was really doing, they would lose support pretty quickly for all these initiatives. even now, this tells me this president is in legacy-building mode. even the past policies or going forward, he doesn't want the public to know because it might disturb the legacy-building enterprise he's engaged in. >> very dangerous te

what are you finding under this administration when it comes to those foia requests? censorship we're getting from the obama administration is at record high. in fact under the obama administration the number of denials, the number of backlog if you will, is more than doubled. there were some 550,000 times that the administration used an exemption to say we can't give thaw information. we have people coming today from the "new york times," from "newsweek," from judicial watch from a lot of these good groups, the aclu, in a very bipartisan way broad array of concerned citizens and national media who said, the freedom of information act which is the way the public can access government records it is not working. it is not working for niche. and yet this is president obama who said he was going to be the most transparent administration in the history of administrations and he issued an order from the department of justice on his first day in office. it has gotten worse not better. bill: i'm read about delays that take months. some of these day lays last for years. >> yeah

government and those are his words but not with filling the foyer of request -- foia request was reported more than any other administration that was denied access. last year and a huge - - use exemptions to withhold after 550,000 times. agencies that may involve documents with equities. but justin last year the government has been fully denied access sally's 250,000 cases for cruz the highest ever of a preface to wait years that that come from the national refusal relief role organizations remember when reset the system is broken and have made we received numerous in hilla and and all of which hindered transparency. the epa she should be avoided disclosure but discussing those with have that physician lewis afforded to said epa. >> one and was but there the identify a the 70,000 reference of this -- in response to the green for refugee initiative but one. >> i handled the decision this variance lou well if pet day seated tonight in an private loan dash the we also see those in the program reductions from the sec. a redacted documents show they blacked out the chairman's initials on every e-mail he sent or received. to do

foia? does the administration have any plans to address that? > i can tell you did ministration with the ongoing efforts to respond to the freedom of the information act request. 647,000 of foia? requests we receive from the public that is 647,000 more foia requests processed by united states congress in those who are interested with transparency and government should advocate for congress with those types of transparency measures. with and that is part of the record. >> and there is a bill pending to reform a the foia law? pemmican such a way congress would be subject to? [laughter] >> called lido's transparency advocates will urge them to do that. we will see if they do. nice to see you. >> i am here that she said in her letter i am curious as the president shares in the of the disappointment? >> if you know what that regulatory agency and to spend a lot of time on the performance under her leadership could be construed by some as the underlying independent. but the reason the president appointed her to this position is because she has a strong

anti-backlog i don't think is -- undue backlog is reflected in the fact the effect is the administration process last year 634,000 foia requests. the fact that 91% of those requests did result in the release of some for all of the requested information, that is an indication this administration's commitment to responding in full as often as possible to foia requests. i also recognize that there's a tendency on the part of those who submit foia request to focus on the 90% that didn't get satisfactory sponsors, and that's the job of those individuals. but their criticisms do not reflect the evidence, the achaemenid evidence about our commitment to the foia process okay? david jackson, last one. >> getting back to free trade. it's not just economic but political but as you note the unions and other groups are threatening democratic members to oppose are withholding their money if they vote for a fast-track authority is the president talking to members about that and promising political? >> the president has made very clear in public and private and willingness to do with democrats who stand with him on the trade argument

administration is living in lala-land. this is jason leopold from your hearing. >> i filed a foia request they refused to comply with my foiaest necessity said it was too broad. i their yesterday it, they still said it was too broad. recently they said we'll give sow document as long as you promise to never file a foia request again and don't have any others file a foia request. >> how is this legal? >> i don't know but that's what's going on. bill: how is this going on? >> we heard from a number of people outside groups from judicial watch a whole number of people saying this is a pattern of stonewalling. the obama administration, 550,000 times has denied requests for citizens, americans to get information from their government. and it's absolutely totally wrong. we need to change the law. we heard from national media and watchdog groups and across the board. >> they said we are going to be the most transparent ever. that came out of the president's mouth repeatedly. >> what we did find which is new information is april 15, the white house clarified that. the deputy council sent an email out telling everybody anything you

administration. it has been going on white a while. talk with reporters who deal with foia requests.en on the up tick for 20 years in terms of slow walking or stalling or using these excuses. you kind of can't blame them. there is a weird twisted logic if you're blocking this if you're the white house or an administration. that is more scrutiny. more people are looking at your communications and how you're making decisions. you might have to actually be held accountable for what you're doing in government. i guess if it weren't for this law, we would never know anything. this is a real problem. it is only been ramped up extremely by the obama administration and, you know, good for con dress to actually be delving into it. but there has to be more done. >> say it has been ramped up under the obama administration which i think a lot of people believe but is that a fact in your opinion? >> well, you can just look at numbers and see how much more slowly these requests are being granted or the number of redactions that are being added. there is one particular exception that journalists ar