{"id":9745,"date":"2019-01-25T19:00:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T19:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9745"},"modified":"2019-01-25T19:00:53","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T19:00:53","slug":"watchdog-groups-oppose-interior-departments-foia-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9745","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog Groups Oppose Interior Department\u2019s FOIA Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

The public has until Jan. 28th to comment on the Interior Department\u2019s proposal to limit its obligation to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests. Photo: U.S. Army<\/p><\/div>\n

by Eric Galatas<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0The U.S. Interior Department has taken steps to restrict public records requests allowed through the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.<\/p>\n

The proposal would allow the agency to deny requests that it deems \u201cburdensome\u201d or \u201cvague,\u201d and officials at the agency say it\u2019s necessary because FOIA requests are bogging down the department\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Jayson O\u2019Neill, deputy director of the Western Values Project, calls the move an attack on open public records and transparency.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs our organization and others have found, there\u2019s been a clear link between special interests, industry interests and the work and the rule changes that have been done at Interior under this administration,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n

Without access to government records, O\u2019Neill says his group would not have uncovered documents showing industry requests for changes to the Greater Sage-Grouse Management Plan to tip the scale for oil and gas producers over ranching and other interests.<\/p>\n

Interior Department officials also say the changes are needed because FOIA requests have been used for political reasons.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill says under previous administrations, Interior Department moves were made in an open and public process.<\/p>\n

He says watchdog organizations such as his and the news media rely on the Freedom of Information Act when agencies aren\u2019t transparent in their decision making.<\/p>\n

\u201cCiting an uptick in requests when you\u2019re making decisions behind closed doors, that obviously is going to be the outcome because these affect our public lands, our wildlife, our waters \u2013 our way of life out in the West,\u201d O\u2019Neill stresses.<\/p>\n

The public has until Jan. 28 to comment on the\u00a0Interior Department\u2019s proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0The Hill newspaper<\/a>, due to the government shutdown, the agency isn\u2019t currently processing public comments.<\/p>\n

Interior also is the only federal agency that has shut down online FOIA requests until the government reopens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Eric Galatas AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0The U.S. Interior Department has taken steps to restrict public records requests allowed through the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA. The proposal would allow the agency to deny requests that it deems \u201cburdensome\u201d or \u201cvague,\u201d and officials at the agency say it\u2019s necessary because FOIA requests are bogging down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9747,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9745\/revisions\/9747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}