A look at Bush's FOIA record

Michael Doyle of "Suits & Sentences" blog provides an interesting review of the Bush administration's response to FOIA requests, compared to the response during the Clinton administration.

Is it possible to prove how much the Bush administration impeded the Freedom of Information Act? Put another way: just how hostile was it?

Pretty darn hostile, a quick-and-dirty Suits & Sentences review shows. Consider: the Defense Department completely granted 61 percent of FOIA requests in Fiscal 1998. In Fiscal 2007, the Defense Department completely granted only 48 percent of FOIA requests. And the Pentagon wasn't alone. The Interior Department fully granted 64 percent of FOIA requests in 1998 but only 47 percent in 2007.

The invaluable annual FOIA reports filed by federal agencies provide the numbers. Let's take a second, in honor of President Obama's newly declared commitment to FOIA, to delve a little deeper.

More here.