In his final year in office, formerPresident Barack Obama's administration spent a record $36.2 million defendingitself from Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, according to a new AssociatedPress analysis.

When the money is broken down, the APfound that the biggest chunks were spent by the Justice Department ($12million), the Department of Homeland Security ($6.3 million) and the Pentagon($4.8 million).

The Obama administration alsodenied access to requested documents and information more than any previousadministration. The AP report revealed that Obama's government "set arecord for times federal employees told citizens, journalists and others that,despite searching, they couldn't find a single page of files that wererequested."

The news wire also concluded thatthe Obama administration set the record for "outright denial of access" tofiles by refusing to quickly consider requests described as "newsworthy."

The AP offered this critique of Obama'soft-repeated promise to be "the most transparent administration in history":

The figures reflect the final strugglesof the Obama administration during the 2016 election to meet President BarackObama's pledge that it was "the most transparent administration in history,"despite wide recognition of serious problems coping with requests under theinformation law. It received a record 788,769 requests for files last year andspent a record $478 million answering them and employed 4,263 full-time FOIAemployees across more than 100 federal departments and agencies. That washigher by 142 such employees the previous year.

While control of the executive branchhas changed parties, it does not necessarily mean more transparency is on theway.

President Donald Trump  has notspoken much about government transparency. And last week, severaljournalists criticized Secretary ofState Rex Tillerson for deciding to travel to Asia this week without a presspool to document his stops in Japan, South Korea and China.

CNN's Jake Tapper described the decisionas "insulting to any American who is looking for anything but a state-runversion of events."

The Washington, D.C., bureau chiefs atCNN, the Washington Post, Fox News, the New York Times, the Wall StreetJournal, NPR and others wrote in a letter to Tillerson's staff that theywere "deeply concerned" about the secretary of state choosing to ditch themedia.

For the full story, click here: http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/03/15/obama-admin-spent-record-amount-of-money-fighting-foia-lawsuits/

A recent federal appeals court ruling does not servethe interests of transparency in small business federal contracting, accordingto a public interest watchdog group. The ruling "dealt a blow to the causes ofopen government and contracting transparency," Neil Gordon, investigator forthe Project on Government Oversight, wrote about the decision. The U.S. Courtof Appeals for the 9th Circuit judged that the Defense Dept. does not have todisclose Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.'s small business subcontracting plan for itsDOD contracts under the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program. Underthe test program, Sikorsky and others may file a single plan outliningsubcontracting payments to small firms for all their DOD contracts, rather thanfiling such plans for each contract. The case started in 2013 with a Freedom ofInformation Act request by the American Small Business League, run by LloydChapman. While a lower court supported ASBL's request, the case was appealed.

The lawsuit shines a light into the test program, apilot program since 1990. ASBL and other critics say it has not shown results.Nonetheless, Congress recently renewed it until 2027. The 9th circuit ruledthat some of Sikorsky's information--including "the names of Sikorsky'ssubcontractors, the type and dollar amount of the goods and servicessubcontracted by Sikorsky, details about the company's subcontracting processand organizational structure" falls under a FOIA exemption for trade secretsand commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential.

For the fullstory, click here: https://www.asbl.com/media/03-03-17%20Set-Aside%20Alert%20Highlighted.pdf