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FOIA staff of 400; costs over $38 million.

3:32 PM, Feb 5, 2013 • By JERYL BIER

According to an annual report for 2012 just released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), DHS processed a total of 205,895 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests during the year. The report, presented by Acting Chief Freedom of Information Act Officer Jonathan R. Cantor, shows that DHS reduced the backlog of such requests by 30 percent during the year. However, a deeper look at the numbers reveals that the agency only fully granted just over 10 percent of FOIA requests that were processed.

Here are the figures from Table B (1) in the report:

205,895 – Total requests processed
21,715 – Full grants
118,719 – Number of partial grants/partial denials
65,461 – Number of full denials (Exemptions/Other)

The percentages break down this way:

32% Fully Denied (although more than half of the denials were due to “no records” or “improper FOIA request”)
89.5% Fully or Partially Denied
10.5% Fully Granted

The report also states that the federal agency employs almost 400 people just to deal with FOIA requests.

Also noted in the report is that freedom of information isn’t free. Costs associates with processing FOIA requests, including almost $2,000,000 for litigation, were $38,633,002 during 2012. Only $435,890 in fees was collected to offset these costs.

The Department of Homeland Security is led by Secretary Janet Napolitano.

7:00 PM, Oct 27, 2011 • By MARK HEMINGWAY

Fox News: "Muslims say crosses at Catholic University Violate 'Human Rights'"

Hot Air: "New DoJ rule a license to lie?"

7:30 AM, Oct 1, 2011 • By MARK HEMINGWAY

Jonathan Last: "The Wisdom of Juice-Boxers"

ProPublica: "Raising Cain: When Is a Scoop Ready to be Published?"

Ben Smith: "On the Upper West Side, an anti-Obama draft"

11:30 AM, Mar 23, 2011 • By MARK HEMINGWAY

Crossroads GPS, the policy arm of Karl Rove's American Crossroads PAC, just dropped a lawsuit on the Obama administration:

TWS Obtains Top Justice Department Official's Recusal Document

It's worse than you think.

3:25 PM, May 6, 2010 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

In last week's cover story, Jennifer Rubin described the run around she received in response to her Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for documentation of recusals by Justice Department lawyers who previously represented Guantanamo detainees. The official responsible for documents from the top offices at DOJ--the attorney general, deputy attorney general, and associate attorney general--told Rubin the documents were not in a readily accessible place, that three individual attorneys' offices would need to be searched, and it would take a total of eight to eleven months to produce them. However, THE WEEKLY STANDARD has now managed to obtain one of these documents--an apparently complete list of the recusals by Thomas Perrelli, the associate attorney general (the number three attorney in the Justice Department). Covering cases and clients Perrelli or his former law firm (Jenner & Block) worked on, it is six pages long and includes a list of forty-one cases involving former or current Guantanamo detainees.

The document is reproduced here. In an e-mail, Jennifer Rubin explains its significance:

The Obama Justice Department—most opaque ever?

May 10, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 32 • By JENNIFER RUBIN

Attorneys who formerly represented al Qaeda members detained at Guantánamo now labor at the Justice Department representing the United States and shaping policy regarding treatment of those detainees. Yet the attorney general refuses to disclose the names of those who worked closely on detainee matters before joining the Obama administration.

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FOIA staff of 400; costs over $38 million.

It's worse than you think.

The Obama Justice Department—most opaque ever?

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