Survey: Only half of federal agencies have better FOI procedures
Filed under: Government, Health data, Health journalism, Public records, Tools
A report from the Knight Open Government Survey found that, despite some progress, federal agencies are only halfway there when it comes to delivering on the president’s day-one promise to improve FOIA procedures and openness across the board.
There is some cause for optimism there, as last year that number was about 14 percent. For the curious, Knight also provided a full PDF of how the 90 different agencies in the survey stacked up.
But before I highlight a few health-related entries, I can’t resist pointing out the survey’s methodology section, which will help explain how the results are organized.
The 2011 Knight Open Government Survey team filed FOIA requests with the 90 federal agencies that have chief FOIA officers, asking for copies of concrete changes in their FOIA regulations, manuals, training materials, or processing guidance as a result of the “Day One” Obama memorandum, and the March 2010 White House memorandum from then-Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and White House Counsel Bob Bauer. The Emanuel-Bauer memo told agencies to 1) update all FOIA material, and 2) assess whether FOIA resources were adequate.
The key takeaway then is that this is a measure of administrative regulation, and not one focused on responsiveness to actual FOIA requests beyond the one used to create each data point. With that in mind, here’s how our friends at health-related agencies stack up.
Concrete action on two steps
- DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
- OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH REVIEW COMM.
- DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
Concrete action on one step
- OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY
- DEFENSE NUCLEAR FACILITIES SAFETY BOARD
- FEDERAL MINE SAFETY & HEALTH REVIEW COMM.
- NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
No final response to FOIA request
- COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
- PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
No acknowledgement of FOIA request
- CHEMICAL SAFETY & HAZARD INVESTIGATION BRD.
Freedom of Information Audits and Government Transparency from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.
FOI blog to follow throughout the year
Long after Sunshine Week has passed us by we recommend keeping an eye on the Art of Access blog (RSS feed). 
Created by Charles Davis and David Cuillier as a companion to the book of the same name, it’s a regularly updated source of rock-solid news and analysis. Davis, a professor at the Missouri School of Journalism (where AHCJ is based), is the former* executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition. University of Arizona professor Cuillier is the chairman of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Freedom of Information Committee.
*An earlier version of this post referred to Davis as the executive director of NFOIC. Ken Bunting has held that position since July 1, 2010. Our apologies for the mistake.
AHCJ leaders hold series of media access meetings with government officials
Filed under: Government, Health journalism, Public health
AHCJ representatives held a series of meetings in Washington, D.C., last week to press for government openness at the state and federal levels.
AHCJ President Charles Ornstein and board member Felice Freyer (chair of the organization’s Right to Know Committee) met with representatives of the Health and Human Services Department, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as well as 12 newly appointed state health directors organized by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
The federal officials professed a commitment to openness, within limits, and promise to look into specific requests to further that goal. The state health officials, who heard a panel presentation about working effectively with reporters, were receptive and eager to talk with AHCJ about building relationships at the state level.
Read more for details from each meeting …
Related
Freyer will moderate a panel on this topic, “Right to know: Getting information from government agencies,” at Health Journalism 2011. The panel features Peter Ashkenaz, director of communications, FDA Office of Regulatory Affairs; Lisa Chedekel, senior writer and co-founder, Connecticut Health I-Team; Lucy A. Dalglish, executive director, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; and Lilian Peake, M.D., M.P.H., director, Thomas Jefferson Health District, Virginia Department of Health.
- Reporter runs into wall requesting public records from FDA
- AHCJ asks FDA to re-evaluate embargo policy
- Health officials, journalists agree information is key in public health crisis
- Journalists, officials discuss information released in public health emergencies
- Committee works to improve access to experts, officials
- Health journalists cite uneven disclosure of H1N1 deaths across country
- Major journalism groups demand agency end newsgathering constraints
- AHCJ objects to federal agencies’ handling of story embargo
- AHCJ calls on new administration to improve access to federal experts
Sunshine Week: Proposals would affect access
The Data Mine, a project from the Center for Public Integrity and the Sunlight Foundation that highlights inaccessible or poorly presented information from the federal government, invites readers to participate in Sunshine Week by tipping them to government data, records and reports that should be open to the public. They also want to hear about federal information that is available but accompanied by restrictions that make it cumbersome or impractical to use.
Bill would require agencies to post public documents online: NextGov.com reports on the proposed 2010 Public Online Information Act.
Access to public records in Florida could grow – or shrink – if Legislature passes these bills: One bill would require Florida’s “Department of Health to establish an interactive online budget, stipulating it be updated each year and trace the flow of all funds appropriated to DOH in the past 20 years,” according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Comparing state FOIA laws: The Detroit Free Press looks at sunshine laws in Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Illinios, Indiana and Wisconsin.
See more Sunshine Week headlines from around the country.
AHCJ resources
- AHCJ calls on new administration to improve access to federal experts
- Major journalism groups demand agency end newsgathering constraints
- AHCJ objects to federal agencies’ handling of story embargo
- AHCJ calls for better information from hospital accreditation Web site
- Health journalists cite uneven disclosure of H1N1 deaths across country
- AHCJ’s right-to-know resources
Sunshine Week: Some of the latest news
- SPLC open records audit examines suicide expulsion policies
- White House memo of March 16, 2010, encourages agencies to ensure full implementation of the President’s Memorandum on FOIA
- Leahy, Cornyn Commemorate Sunshine Week With Faster FOIA Act Introduction
- Public Online Information Act to be introduced by Steve Israel (D-N.Y)
- Sunshine and Shadows:The Clear Obama Message for Freedom of Information Meets Mixed Results (National Security Archive FOIA Audit)
- AP analysis of Obama FOIA record at a glance
- Introducing the Cycle of Transparency
- Budget cuts, furloughs blamed for denial or delay of official information in Calif.
AHCJ resources
- AHCJ calls on new administration to improve access to federal experts
- Major journalism groups demand agency end newsgathering constraints
- AHCJ objects to federal agencies’ handling of story embargo
- AHCJ calls for better information from hospital accreditation Web site
- Health journalists cite uneven disclosure of H1N1 deaths across country
- AHCJ’s right-to-know resources
Sunshine Week poll: U.S. government is secretive
Americans think the U.S. government is “secretive” or “very secretive,” according to a poll released in conjunction with National Sunshine Week.
The poll, part of a five-year series of studies into public attitudes toward government openness commissioned by the American Society of News Editors, “found that 70 percent believe that the federal government is either ‘very secretive’ or ’somewhat secretive.’ The largest portion of respondents, 44 percent, said it is ‘very secretive.’”
Attitudes on the openness of the federal government have changed in recent years. In the first poll conducted for National Sunshine Week in 2006, 22 percent of respondents said they believed the federal government was “very secretive.” It rose to 37 percent in 2007, 44 percent in 2008 and then dropped slightly to 40 percent in 2009 at the beginning of the Obama administration.
State and local governments fared better in the public mind: “Only 36 percent believe their local governments are very or somewhat secretive. Forty-eight percent said the same of their state governments.”
The survey was conducted from Feb. 3 to March 9 at the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University under a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation. The poll has a margin of error of about 4 percentage points.
AHCJ resources
- AHCJ calls on new administration to improve access to federal experts
- Major journalism groups demand agency end newsgathering constraints
- AHCJ objects to federal agencies’ handling of story embargo
- AHCJ calls for better information from hospital accreditation Web site
- Health journalists cite uneven disclosure of H1N1 deaths across country
- AHCJ’s right-to-know resources
Sunshine Week may drop employee, fundraising
Filed under: Health journalism, Hot Health Headline
Clint Hendler reports in the Columbia Journalism Review that Sunshine Week’s only full-time coordinator will likely lose her job soon.
Photo by **Mary** via Flickr
The media-sponsored weeklong push for open government will be put together on a part-time basis by an employee at the American Society of News Editors. Sponsors hope the event has gained enough momentum to keep going with less intensive planning and organization and more reliance upon volunteer efforts.
The Knight Foundation grants that kept the event going since its 2005 inception have run their course, and a major fundraising push raised only $471,600 of a planned $2.5 million towards a permanent endowment. The Knight Foundation will match any funds raised. According to Hendler, the disappointing totals have led ASNE to pull resources out of fundraising efforts and instead devote them to keeping Sunshine Week going.
New FOIA guidelines encourage transparency
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder issued a memorandum (PDF) that directs all executive branch departments and agencies to apply a presumption of openness when administering the Freedom of Information Act.
The guidelines state that “an agency should not withhold information simply because it may do so legally” and that when “an agency determines that it cannot make full disclosure of a requested record, it must consider whether it can make partial disclosure.” Holder emphasizes that everyone in the federal government is responsible for effective FOIA administration, not just an agency’s FOIA staff.
The memo addresses online records and data as well: “Accordingly, agencies should readily and systematically post information online in advance of any public request. Providing more information online reduces the need for individualized requests and may help reduce existing backlogs.”
The memo specifically “rescinds the guidelines issued on Oct. 12, 2001, by former Attorney General John Ashcroft.”
Related
- Barriers in 5 Midwest states chill public access
- Some hospital quality measures online
- Online health data varies by state
- FDA leader warns staff about leaking information
- Progress on open access issue not what it seems
- AHCJ to Obama: Improve access to federal experts
Barriers in 5 Midwest states chill public access
A study from the the Citizen Advocacy Center finds that open government laws in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota have systemic barriers that chill public participation and access to government.
The Center analyzed each state’s Freedom of Information and Open Meetings Acts and found striking similarities between all states, including:
- Open government laws are sporadically enforced, which means public bodies are more likely to be unresponsive to records requests and employ exemptions to keep meetings closed.
- No state surveyed has a government office with statutory authority specifically created to oversee and enforce sunshine laws.
- State employees are not adequately trained to carry out open government policies and may be unintentionally violating the laws.
- Citizens may be able to attend meetings, but there are very few opportunities to participate.
The Midwest Open Goverment Project is a comprehensive study of the Freedom of Information and Open Meetings Acts in those five states, under the auspices of the Citizen Advocacy Center.
Sunshine Week: Some hospital quality measures online
Felice Freyer, a medical writer at The Providence (R.I.) Journal and a member of AHCJ’s Right to Know Committee, writes in an article for AHCJ that “In recent years, state and federal agencies have begun yanking data out of filing cabinets and opening their folders to the daylight of cyberspace.”
As Freyer points out, “The Internet offers vast new opportunities to answer every patient’s most pressing question: Am I entrusting my health to people who will take good care of me?”
Web sites that offer hospital quality data not only inform consumers, they prod everyone in health care to do a better job. Much more can and should be done to give the public better access to what the regulators know.
Read more of Freyers article.
Additional Sunshine Week coverage: Online health data varies by state
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