The Obama administration has broken a record for denying and censoring Freedom of Information Act requests.
Federal data analyzed by The Associated Press led the news outlet to make the announcement Wednesday.
A backlog of FOIA requests reached 200,000 by year’s end, 375 employees tasked with completing requests were cut, and the government claimed it couldn’t find records in 215,584 cases, AP reported.
The White House, however, touted its performance.
“We actually do have a lot to brag about,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday, AP reported. The government responded to 647,142 requests and spent $434 million in the process.
“What we discovered reaffirmed what we have seen all too frequently in recent years,” said AP’s chief executive, Gary Pruitt. “The systems created to give citizens information about their government are badly broken and getting worse all the time.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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