CONTACT
Aaron Weiss, Deputy Director
Center for Western Priorities
aaron@westernpriorities.org
720-279-0019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2019
DENVER—The Interior Department announced changes to how the department would process Freedom of Information Act requests by releasing a final rule. The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Deputy Director Aaron Weiss:
“Secretary Bernhardt got caught red-handed trying to violate the Freedom of Information Act in ways we’ve never seen before. The number of egregious proposals dropped in the final rule after bipartisan pushback confirm it. The final rule may fix some problems on paper, but at the end of the day, Interior needs to hire more FOIA employees to release documents in a timely fashion, and they must stop the now well-documented practice of letting political appointees withhold embarrassing documents from the public. A rule isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on if you’re just going to ignore it.”
“It’s now incumbent on Interior’s Inspector General to quickly conclude his investigation into systemic FOIA violations at Interior, and hold accountable those responsible for it.”
For more information, visit westernpriorities.org. To speak with an expert on public lands, contact Aaron Weiss at 720-279-0019 or aaron@westernpriorities.org. Sign up for Look West to get daily public lands and energy news sent to your inbox.