White House exempts itself from FOIA requests
RT.com
March 17, 2015
Notwithstanding claims of being the most transparent administration ever, the White House now says that an executive branch office is exempt from United States Freedom of Information Act requests effective immediately.
As of Tuesday, the Office of Administration will no longer have to heed FOIA requests — the likes of which had for decades helped explain the inner workings of White House functions — according to a notice published in the Federal Register this week.
Although the White House is largely exempt from having to answer FOIA requests, the Office of Administration has until now been among the few exceptions concerning the commander-in-chief. In the final rule published on Tuesday morning, however, the deputy assistant to President Barack Obama writes that the office’s parent agency, the Executive Office of the President, “is removing regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations related to the status of records created and maintained by the Executive Office.”
According to the White House’s reasoning, the sole function of the Office of Administration is to advise and assist the president and therefore it’s not covered under the Freedom of Information Act or the Privacy Act of 1974.
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