Stop effort to allow Trump administration to work in the dark

The most secretive administration in the past 60 years is working to make the government’s business even more opaque. President Trump, who is still hiding his tax returns, is now moving to deprive the public of its right to know what is happening at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Outgoing Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke submitted plans Friday for new regulations that would make it more difficult for news organizations and other parties to access information from the government under the Freedom of Information Act. The new rules were submitted without a public press release during the government shutdown. The public has until Jan. 28 to comment on the proposed changes.

The Trump administration outrage is troubling for Californians concerned with the Interior Department’s ongoing efforts to rollback regulatory protections. Transparency will be critical as the state works with the federal government on such issues as climate change, air quality, wildfires and the fate of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The fact that Zinke, who is facing multiple ethics investigations, in early December appointed Daniel Jorjani to oversee Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests is also disconcerting. Jorjani is a former adviser to Charles and David Koch, the billionaires who have a long history of violating environmental laws and own companies that are among the nation’s biggest polluters.

It’s Jorjani’s job to ensure the public’s access to the Interior Department’s workings. It’s not Jorjani’s job to hide the Koch Brothers’ and Zinke’s dirty secrets. But last March, the Washington Post reported that a FOIA document revealed that Jorjani told another staffer, “At the end of the day,

our job is to protect the secretary (Zinke).”

Journalists, non-profit organizations, researchers and other interested parties use FOIA requests to hold the government accountable. These requests become especially critical when government moves to keep proceedings behind closed doors.

The federal government has seen a 30 percent increase in FOIA requests since Trump became president. The Interior Department, under Zinke’s leadership, has reported that FOIA requests are up 210 percent since 2016.

The new regulations give Jorjani and the Interior Department greater flexibility in responding to requests. The most worrisome change is eliminating “a breaking news story of general public interest” as a legitimate reason to accelerate a FOIA request. The Interior Department is also seeking to potentially limit the number of requests an organization or individual can make within a given time period.

It was Rep. John Moss, D-Sacramento, who first advocated for the Freedom of Information Act. Moss, who was also the first member of Congress to call for the impeachment of Richard Nixon, fought with President Eisenhower in 1955 over access to the records of thousands of federal employees who had been fired after being accused of being communists.

“The present trend toward government secrecy could end in a dictatorship,” warned Moss. “The more information that is made available, the greater will be the nation’s security.”

It took more than a decade before President Lyndon Johnson signed the FOIA into law, appropriately enough, on July 4, 1966. Since then it has led to countless successful investigations of government wrongdoing.

“The present trend toward government secrecy could end in a dictatorship,” warned Moss. “The more information that is made available, the greater will be the nation’s security.”

It took more than a decade before President Lyndon Johnson signed the FOIA into law, appropriately enough, on July 4, 1966. Since then it has led to countless successful investigations of government wrongdoing. — Bay Area News Group, Digital First Media