FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: U.S. Attorney General decries FOIA intrusion into Executive Branch deliberations

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

U.S. Attorney General William Bar delivered remarks to the Federalist Society on November 15, 2019 that included a brief discussion of the Freedom of Information Act:

The costs of this constant harassment are real.  For example, we all understand that confidential communications and a private, internal deliberative process are essential for all of our branches of government to properly function.  Congress and the Judiciary know this well, as both have taken great pains to shield their own internal communications from public inspection.  There is no FOIA for Congress or the Courts.  Yet Congress has happily created a regime that allows the public to seek whatever documents it wants from the Executive Branch at the same time that individual congressional committees spend their days trying to publicize the Executive’s internal decisional process.  That process cannot function properly if it is public, nor is it productive to have our government devoting enormous resources to squabbling about what becomes public and when, rather than doing the work of the people.