FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: Requests to EPA & Interior draw WAPO's attention

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Trump environmental officials are keeping tight rein over stampede of FOIA requests

By Dino Grandoni & Juliet Eilperin, Wash. Post, Dec. 15, 2017

The Trump administration’s top environmental policymakers are engaged in a new war with their adversaries — over how much information to release to the media and outside groups, who are often perceived as enemies, as part of a heavy stream of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

The Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department are at ground zero in this growing feud. At both departments and elsewhere in the administration, news outlets and nonprofit organizations have uncovered meeting schedules and travel manifests through FOIA requests that illustrate the ties top officials have forged with players in industries they are tasked with regulating. FOIA requests have also shed light on EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s taxpayer-funded travel habits.

Read more here.