This is exactly what I was thinking - most of FOIA time is taken carefully selecting the smallest amount of information to produce and then redactions and review. If they just start with over selecting and disseminating the speed of FOIA response will increase event with significantly reduced staff.
Many agencies that are FOIAed take it seriously and have no additional staff to work on them. Environmental agencies for sure. So the employees have to fulfill FOIA requests and perform regular duties as well. This administration is doing nothing to make that situation better, but everything to make it worse. Anyone who believed the bs about this administration being transparent was a fool. I’d love to FOIA DOGE for the names of every person they collected personal information on, every record they screwed with, with no cause. Skepticism is healthy, cynicism is malignant.
We don’t consider this seriously enough. Public Information Officers are often responsible for FOIA requests. Guess what they also do? Write the “public release” narratives that make their boss look good. It isn’t just about being the fox in the henhouse. The accountability mechanism just isn’t there most of the time when is too easy to not include damaging info.
Well, if you're new to substack, you'll learn that there are some smart folks in the comment areas, and occasionally you'll learn a thing to or two, and also find new substack columnists to follow.
Of course, with the falling of the Biden administration, we've had an invasion of caustic folks who seek to diminish the conversation, and like it or not, we're a more discerning bunch... and we like to ignore or report whiny people if it gets really bad.
Or, on the other hand, the shortened staff might just try to make their jobs easier by just giving you everything instead of the usual stonewalling and intentional delays...
If HHS begins to publish their scientific data in a more publicly transparent fashion—as Kennedy proposes—then it would seem to me that the need to request info via the FOIA would likely drop.
Where was the loudmouthed Congresswoman Diana DeGette, D-Colorado when Americans were getting fatter, sicker and weaker? Where was Congresswoman Diana DeGette, D-Colorado when Americans were being bullied, lied to, forced to wear masks, distance and take shots that didn't work and injured them. Nowhere, that's where. Because she has a D after her name. Standing for Dimwitted, Destructive, Douche.
FOIA is good to a point but a venal and corrupt government will always hide its secrets. And its criminality.
Or in the case of the venal and corrupt government (always incompetent by default) of D. Trump and his merry band of goons and ghouls, the current administration has opted for full transparency---they not only don't conceal their corruption, greed or their animal, malignant desires, they actually get right up in your grill and flaunt their criminality. Nice guys. Salt-of-the-earth types.
These guys have no secrets and even if they did they wouldn't give a fuck if you knew them or not. Chronic and congenital liars don't keep secrets. Why bother with secrets? If you're willing to lie and broadcast bullshit at every opportunity, there's no need to keep secrets.
Like the fact that the President you degenerates foisted on us was incompetent and incontinent for his entire term and you lied and covered it up, putting us all at risk and running a scam and con on your fellow citizens? And you wonder why we hate you and don't give a shit about what you say and think anymore?
Speaking of lol: A follower of both Rufo and my man Alex Newman! Ouzza, wowzza! Careful with Newman---Newman, according his own testimonials, is an "award-winning international journalist, educator, author, speaker, investor, and consultant who seeks to glorify God in everything he does."
Bet his clients love that! Sound advice: never do business with god-botherers, collectors of porcelain figurines, or people who salt their casual conversation with the two-word locution "and whatnot."
Whenever a FOIA request of interest seems to be "filled" that is important or embarrassing, it comes heavily redacted anyway to be of minimal use.
We all know how Fauci's Little Helper David Morens worked tirelessly to protect his boss and NIAID from critical FOIA requests: nypost.com/2023/06/29/fauci-adviser-hid-nih-emails-from-foia-requests-during-covid/ Having worked in the federal government for six years, this is no doubt the norm, not an aberration. The rotted FOIA system should be gutted and replaced with automated transparent release of ALL government documents (of course, REAL "National Security" is seldom if ever involved in federal government secrets). Make transparency the default and allow national security excuses case by case with oversight.
Obama gutted the Whistleblower programs (jailing more than all previous Presidents combined). The federal bureaucracy protects itself from misdeeds and incompetence. The hideous treatment of Thomas Drake and other whistleblowers by NSA gave us Edward Snowden. Unlikely to have such transparency ever again.
Given that RFK Jr. was a prolific filer of FOIA requests to HHS prior to being put in charge of that agency, I am thinking his firings in the FOIA office are those who have stonewalled FOIA requests and fought against the release of relevant public health information. In other words: he's cutting out a cancerous tumor within the agency. I could be wrong, but I see no reason to think RFK Jr. did this to protect the secrets of his corrupt predecessors.
Listen to Secretary Kennedy’s March 27th address. All of it. HHS bloat, manifested in siloed redundancies is what’s being attacked. The FOIA function will continue because it must, but maybe it will be consolidated and streamlined in his reorganization. Take a deep breath and let the man do what we know must be done.
I'm delighted - I'd like to see the entire gang shopped and replaced by high IQ 20 somethings. Let's not forget how many stories we heard about staff being coached on how to avoid fulfilling these requests. Bureaucrats normally move at the speed of glue with regular coffee breaks.
I'd settle for a temporary shut-down, a reorganization of the access work flow, and staffing with motivated individuals bent on meeting the needs of the people - not protecting the inside deals of special interests. Walter knows David Sacks - shouldn't be too hard to get the system sorted and then put back on line. If not, temporary rehires to get the numbers back up.
The great thing about DOGE is they're not afraid to change when they've erred. You're right to point this out, however. Putting pride back in the civil service to make it the best and most efficient in the world is baseline for all current government workers.
You cited Pew to use one poor stat to describe the federal wage. Do you understand the statistical “bell shaped curve” idea? The use of “average” where the data is so skewed, and where it clearly points out the fact that most Fed employees make a middle class income, shows you don’t understand statistics. Won’t comment further on that. Many people who chose civil service do so because no private sector employer does the work. Won’t comment further on that. Finally I hope someday you start waking up to what Trump, Doge and all the rest of this administration is up to. Tear down the federal government, install white Christian nationalists whose main strength is loyalty to Trump, not the laws and regs of the land, and watch the rich get richer, and the rest of us become their worker bees. I do appreciate your thoughtful comments, but can’t keep discussing the same points you continue to try and make with the same information. One more point, most of the professional people I know who worked in the federal workforce are indeed proud to have that responsibility. I wish you the best!
Yup, one of my first jobs. Was told specifically to "slow down, we do this at a set pace." 8 hours of work finished in 5 or 6 - the rest? Play time.
Have a good friend who works in roads - every Feb-March they rip up every street necessary to ensure that every penny of the yearly budget gets spent.
One relative was a city manager - never once offered a city contract for public tender.
Lots of public school teachers in the family, dedicated professionals. During union negotiations, the union enforced - "no after-school student services, tutoring, club activities, etc." Sorry kids!
I belonged to unions off and on for large parts of my life. They vary greatly. However, nobody works harder or longer hours than small business owners, in my experience. One of our neighbors lost his restaurant this year. My wife visited her home town - lots of boarded up businesses.
Public employees enjoy none of the "we could all lose our jobs if we don't get this right" stresses/incentives that those who work in the regular economy normally enjoy.
Doing our best each day simplifies just about every part of life. I'm sure you agree.
Don’t know what your point is with all that. I’m not reading the article about NGOs. A couple million people serve 330 million US citizens. Average wage is hardly a metric that says much. Read the Pew article. A large proportion are college educated and most feds make roughly 50k to slightly over $100k. Well I’d hope so.
The Pew article is great, and documents general approval of federal workers, and highest wage earners…over 200k, are few and many oversee departments and regions with more employees than CEOs making far more.
Again….DOGE is wreaking havoc …dismissing thousands of highly qualified people providing essential government services, to be more efficient? And supposedly to save money when again, federal employees cost us about 1 percent of the total US budget.
They are doing this to abolish regulations, oversight and law enforcement that protect all of us. Why? Because this will enable corporations and the wealthiest among us, to further load up even more wealth for themselves. They view us as peasants, worker bees. Open your eyes.
You're starting to wake up to the fact that the streamlining of the federal government will involve much more than repurposing the federal work force. Cherry-picking the elements of the Pew study don't change the fact that the average federal employee is paid 106,000 dollars and enjoyed until now benefits, job security, and a pension that many would envy.
You're entirely right to point out that inefficient, but often talented, employees are only part of the problem. Regulatory capture means that the government is already serving special interests, rather than the electorate, and has been for the last century, or two.
Your contention that billionaires just now for the first time are controlling the levers of power for self interest is stunning and betrays a faith in fair and honest government that is mind-boggling.
The federal agencies you're defending approved "non-addictive" Oxy, and protected big tobacco decades after evidence surfaced of the harms of smoking.
Americans have never been as unhealthy and as poorly-educated dollar for dollar than Americans are now - and you contend that until DOGE showed up everything was hunky-dory. Bureaucrats don't decide government policy, you eagerly and humbly execute the will of the people, like it or not. If you're all as capable of excellence as you contend, I'd guess you'd be leaping at the opportunity to earn far more and be much more successful in the private sector - not clinging to the government tit.
Wow. Well I’ve seen laziness in every private sector job I’ve worked too. Finally after 6 years of college I worked and paid for myself, I landed my dream job in a federal agency of professionals. During my career, I knew two employees that weren’t pulling their weight. The rest were to a person, hard working, conscientious, and loved their jobs and mission, and understood we worked for the American public. I believe when people go to school and train for a profession they are passionate about, most become very good employees. As for not worrying about losing their jobs, every few years we worried about and worked through budget cuts. Now DOGE is firing, arbitrarily and without explanation, and for no wrong done, tens of thousands of great employees who worked and to earn and keep their positions. Are there slackers, sure, as there are in the private sector.
DOGE is not trying to save us money, federal employees cost us about 1 percent of the US budget. After Obama’s hiring freeze, we we down to numbers of federal employees we had in the late 60s. They are not rooting out slackers or the corrupt because they make no attempt to identify them. DOGE, led by a a billionaire who makes his money with billions of federal dollars contracts (he just got what, 200b for rocket launches?), is destroying federal agencies whose duties are to implement laws and regulations. Regulations that can, and should cost corporations money. Musks companies have several pending court cases for violating numerous regs. He is getting rid of agencies and therefore regs, and so paving his and his cronies way to even more riches.
It seems you're one of the folks who should be thanked and employed. Hospital workers, teachers, police people, and social workers and other professional workers often demonstrate similar levels of excellence.
Blaming DOGE for executing efficiently what tens of millions of Americans have been demanding for decades puts the cart before the horse. Eliminating redundancy and other forms of waste is long overdue. Institutional inertia, politics, careerism, and sclerosis impedes your ability to perform at maximum levels. The fact that public employees and those in many private sector unions can only be fired with great difficulty further impedes efforts to streamline and improve workflows and outcomes. Whatever the areas we may agree upon, or not, no serious effort has ever been made to modernize government services. If you haven't done so yet, please plug in to Elon's X feed, or other DOGE sources. Offer constructive criticism where warranted.
What I do know is that my own income as a non-tenured academic flat-lined decades ago, while my workload steadily increased while working in both public and private education.
I'm one of hundreds of millions worldwide who saw costs rise while wages stagnated for decades, even as I continued to acquire certifications, experience and professional recognition. More managers were hired, fiefs expanded, new buildings were built, textbooks and IT placed in classrooms, while instructor pay in real terms and student performance declined.
My wife and I adjusted, worked, made sacrifices and sensible investments, put our kids through good schools, and lead good lives. But we don't make six figures for pushing paper and would both much rather give garbage collectors and teachers a raise, rather than see another nickel go to bloated bureaucracies and those committed to institutional waste and graft.
You sound smart - I'm sure you'll land on your feet. Best of luck, sincerely, if you're on those under the axe.
I never made six figures and supervised 3 to 7 people, and personally worked on projects that kept people working, projects worth millions, and court challenges worth millions. Our AO administered millions and made 50 k. We typically made less than our counterparts in the private sector. You’ve seem to not understand, they are arbitrarily firing those who save you money…experienced people working to make your life better. They could fire the entire government and not help the debt one bit. Musk gets billions, not millions, to support his Mars missions. He fires people that keep SS checks coming, keep funds moving to rural hospitals, clean water in your homes, warns of upcoming dangerous storms, research cancer, you get my drift. All for 1% of the budget, Why don’t we pause some the Mars missions, the billions spent, and solve the debt?
Silo is frequently the best solution to mismanaged organizations.
You extract talent from garbage organizations - like any government agency ever - place them in strong positions with great tools and great people around them and let them solve the same recurring problem every garbage organization has got in their particular area of expertise.
Like the 1500 IT experts who do nothing but hand out cell phones and laptops at the IRS. 10 guys could do that function as a sideline or “additional duty.”
They can structure FOIA into a compact, muscular organization that gets it done smooth, easy, 100x more efficient, and blutfeld can blow it out his stein.
I believe I understand the role and concept of FOIA but the actual process of obtaining documents seems a little less clear. From the staff numbers and your description, it seems heavily labor-intensive. But I recall past stories where documents that should have been released aren’t, or release seems delayed purposely.
My question: Is any of the process automated to allow the requester to obtain documents without assistance of an employee? Is there a good reason that for most documents, assuming they are properly cataloged, can’t be obtained by an online search by the customer?
Expediency in responding to FOIA requests lies more with organizational alignment than actual headcount. Given the propensity to stall and release the absolute minimum, current staff were more focused on redacting and navigating minimal compliance rather than providing information. Eliminating the three-toed sloth population with new and contracted help — combined with top-down direction for transparency — will (hopefully) improve the FOIA process.
There's no way in hell it will "all" be openly available. There are numerous laws pertaining to privacy, confidential business information, attorney privileged and a host of other categories exempt from disclosure under FOIA (or at all).
When my Taxpayer dollars are spent I have a right to know just what the H it is being spent on. The only exception that I approve of is The DOD . Advance research in weapons etc does need protection . Sad that the info on such seems to be open to foreign spying via China especially. More so than medical research . The shit show that Facui and company was involved in should have ended with him and anyone helping him stood up before a firing squad and shot for attempted murder of an entire Nation IE the USA . How the H did the US Gov. who's main job is protection of the Citizens of the USA let the likes of Fauci get away with such. Now being retired with a retirement in the thousands a month paid for by the very Citizens he and his lacky's attempted to MURDER!
There's LONG been an abuse of the classification system, to where inconvenient truth also gets classified, just to avoid embarrassment or accountability. I point to the preponderance of data purposefully hidden around the entire covid saga and it's follow-up injection scheme (I won't call it a vaccine as it never was one, and indeed, the definition of a "vaccine" was modified to avoid criteria needed to prove it works.
It doesn't matter what you do or do not approve of. There are myriads of legal information restrictions passed by Congress on the Executive Branch. You have the right to see exactly what Congress allows you to see and that is all.
I know you are basically right but that does not make it ok . If congress , house and senate passes and the President signs then yes it becomes law unless it does not pass muster before the Supreme Court when challenged.
"what Congress allows" Now there is a statement by , must be, a government worker. If so then I hope your are one of the one's fired .
NOTHING passed by Congress is law unless also signed by the President of the USA.
Everything Congress passes becomes law unless vetoed by the President, and they can then overrule the veto by a 2/3rds vote. I'll view the rest of your comment(s) in light of that extremely large error.
Just a guess on my part , 75% of FOIA request are just BS . The Fed.s would not have the problem if it was not for the secrecy the Fed.s continue to hide from the Citizens of the USA.
90% of Gov. actions should not be held from the Citizens. Sure DOD has , as it should have, a lot of info which should not be disclosed to the Public. Otherwise We the citizens should not be kept in the dark as to what the Gov. has or is doing. That goes from local Gov. all the way up to the Federal Gov.
FOIA is illegal. Every piece of information created by our govt is owned by the people. Aside from top secret or classified (which too much is) we the people are the reason information is created and we own it all. The govt has no right to keep us from any of it. I’d also add the DOGE is installing AI within every agency and maybe just possibly those let go won’t be needed any longer as information will finally just become data that can be looked up and none of these requests will be required. Just sayin’
ANOTHER ITEM in RACKET LIBRARY RELATED TO THIS TIMELINE
Do Your Own Research: How to File Your Own Freedom of Information Requests
Interview with Allan Blutstein, who helps run a site that explains the ins and outs of filing FOIA requests.
https://www.racket.news/p/do-your-own-research-how-to-file
Thank you, Kathleen! What a coincidence. I'm in the process of filing a FOIA request for the first time and can use a little primer.
FOIA is pretty much bullshit anyway. Majority of those thousands of employees were probably busy preventing release.
This is exactly what I was thinking - most of FOIA time is taken carefully selecting the smallest amount of information to produce and then redactions and review. If they just start with over selecting and disseminating the speed of FOIA response will increase event with significantly reduced staff.
Many agencies that are FOIAed take it seriously and have no additional staff to work on them. Environmental agencies for sure. So the employees have to fulfill FOIA requests and perform regular duties as well. This administration is doing nothing to make that situation better, but everything to make it worse. Anyone who believed the bs about this administration being transparent was a fool. I’d love to FOIA DOGE for the names of every person they collected personal information on, every record they screwed with, with no cause. Skepticism is healthy, cynicism is malignant.
We don’t consider this seriously enough. Public Information Officers are often responsible for FOIA requests. Guess what they also do? Write the “public release” narratives that make their boss look good. It isn’t just about being the fox in the henhouse. The accountability mechanism just isn’t there most of the time when is too easy to not include damaging info.
Without FOIA, we'd be 100% fucked. With it, we're only 90% fucked.
how do you know this? or this the comment section just a bitch fest? i don't usually read the comments.
Well, if you're new to substack, you'll learn that there are some smart folks in the comment areas, and occasionally you'll learn a thing to or two, and also find new substack columnists to follow.
Of course, with the falling of the Biden administration, we've had an invasion of caustic folks who seek to diminish the conversation, and like it or not, we're a more discerning bunch... and we like to ignore or report whiny people if it gets really bad.
Exactly. We prefer to have level headed factually based conversations without the drama.
Wow…is this the same Racket group we’ve seen for the past 8 years?
Or, on the other hand, the shortened staff might just try to make their jobs easier by just giving you everything instead of the usual stonewalling and intentional delays...
And all the redacting.
If HHS begins to publish their scientific data in a more publicly transparent fashion—as Kennedy proposes—then it would seem to me that the need to request info via the FOIA would likely drop.
Don’t hold your breath
Where was the loudmouthed Congresswoman Diana DeGette, D-Colorado when Americans were getting fatter, sicker and weaker? Where was Congresswoman Diana DeGette, D-Colorado when Americans were being bullied, lied to, forced to wear masks, distance and take shots that didn't work and injured them. Nowhere, that's where. Because she has a D after her name. Standing for Dimwitted, Destructive, Douche.
FOIA is good to a point but a venal and corrupt government will always hide its secrets. And its criminality.
Or in the case of the venal and corrupt government (always incompetent by default) of D. Trump and his merry band of goons and ghouls, the current administration has opted for full transparency---they not only don't conceal their corruption, greed or their animal, malignant desires, they actually get right up in your grill and flaunt their criminality. Nice guys. Salt-of-the-earth types.
These guys have no secrets and even if they did they wouldn't give a fuck if you knew them or not. Chronic and congenital liars don't keep secrets. Why bother with secrets? If you're willing to lie and broadcast bullshit at every opportunity, there's no need to keep secrets.
Like the fact that the President you degenerates foisted on us was incompetent and incontinent for his entire term and you lied and covered it up, putting us all at risk and running a scam and con on your fellow citizens? And you wonder why we hate you and don't give a shit about what you say and think anymore?
LOL, well said in response to gomer pile , as in pile of S .
Speaking of lol: A follower of both Rufo and my man Alex Newman! Ouzza, wowzza! Careful with Newman---Newman, according his own testimonials, is an "award-winning international journalist, educator, author, speaker, investor, and consultant who seeks to glorify God in everything he does."
Bet his clients love that! Sound advice: never do business with god-botherers, collectors of porcelain figurines, or people who salt their casual conversation with the two-word locution "and whatnot."
You sound fully boosted. Now get to work on fauci's other boot.... It's not going to lick itself.
Now THAT'S funny!!!
Well put Bruce! As Billy Joel likes to say, “Don’t take any shit from anybody!”
That's very low---using a Billy Joel quote to denigrate someone.
Pobrecito.
Little bit more psychotic.
Whenever a FOIA request of interest seems to be "filled" that is important or embarrassing, it comes heavily redacted anyway to be of minimal use.
We all know how Fauci's Little Helper David Morens worked tirelessly to protect his boss and NIAID from critical FOIA requests: nypost.com/2023/06/29/fauci-adviser-hid-nih-emails-from-foia-requests-during-covid/ Having worked in the federal government for six years, this is no doubt the norm, not an aberration. The rotted FOIA system should be gutted and replaced with automated transparent release of ALL government documents (of course, REAL "National Security" is seldom if ever involved in federal government secrets). Make transparency the default and allow national security excuses case by case with oversight.
Obama gutted the Whistleblower programs (jailing more than all previous Presidents combined). The federal bureaucracy protects itself from misdeeds and incompetence. The hideous treatment of Thomas Drake and other whistleblowers by NSA gave us Edward Snowden. Unlikely to have such transparency ever again.
Remember “the FOIA Lady” who coached everyone how to hide records from searches?
Given that RFK Jr. was a prolific filer of FOIA requests to HHS prior to being put in charge of that agency, I am thinking his firings in the FOIA office are those who have stonewalled FOIA requests and fought against the release of relevant public health information. In other words: he's cutting out a cancerous tumor within the agency. I could be wrong, but I see no reason to think RFK Jr. did this to protect the secrets of his corrupt predecessors.
I hope for this.
Listen to Secretary Kennedy’s March 27th address. All of it. HHS bloat, manifested in siloed redundancies is what’s being attacked. The FOIA function will continue because it must, but maybe it will be consolidated and streamlined in his reorganization. Take a deep breath and let the man do what we know must be done.
I'm delighted - I'd like to see the entire gang shopped and replaced by high IQ 20 somethings. Let's not forget how many stories we heard about staff being coached on how to avoid fulfilling these requests. Bureaucrats normally move at the speed of glue with regular coffee breaks.
I'd settle for a temporary shut-down, a reorganization of the access work flow, and staffing with motivated individuals bent on meeting the needs of the people - not protecting the inside deals of special interests. Walter knows David Sacks - shouldn't be too hard to get the system sorted and then put back on line. If not, temporary rehires to get the numbers back up.
The great thing about DOGE is they're not afraid to change when they've erred. You're right to point this out, however. Putting pride back in the civil service to make it the best and most efficient in the world is baseline for all current government workers.
You cited Pew to use one poor stat to describe the federal wage. Do you understand the statistical “bell shaped curve” idea? The use of “average” where the data is so skewed, and where it clearly points out the fact that most Fed employees make a middle class income, shows you don’t understand statistics. Won’t comment further on that. Many people who chose civil service do so because no private sector employer does the work. Won’t comment further on that. Finally I hope someday you start waking up to what Trump, Doge and all the rest of this administration is up to. Tear down the federal government, install white Christian nationalists whose main strength is loyalty to Trump, not the laws and regs of the land, and watch the rich get richer, and the rest of us become their worker bees. I do appreciate your thoughtful comments, but can’t keep discussing the same points you continue to try and make with the same information. One more point, most of the professional people I know who worked in the federal workforce are indeed proud to have that responsibility. I wish you the best!
I'm the one who won't leave this alone? We disagree. I'm good with that. You?
Yup, one of my first jobs. Was told specifically to "slow down, we do this at a set pace." 8 hours of work finished in 5 or 6 - the rest? Play time.
Have a good friend who works in roads - every Feb-March they rip up every street necessary to ensure that every penny of the yearly budget gets spent.
One relative was a city manager - never once offered a city contract for public tender.
Lots of public school teachers in the family, dedicated professionals. During union negotiations, the union enforced - "no after-school student services, tutoring, club activities, etc." Sorry kids!
I belonged to unions off and on for large parts of my life. They vary greatly. However, nobody works harder or longer hours than small business owners, in my experience. One of our neighbors lost his restaurant this year. My wife visited her home town - lots of boarded up businesses.
Public employees enjoy none of the "we could all lose our jobs if we don't get this right" stresses/incentives that those who work in the regular economy normally enjoy.
Doing our best each day simplifies just about every part of life. I'm sure you agree.
Don’t know what your point is with all that. I’m not reading the article about NGOs. A couple million people serve 330 million US citizens. Average wage is hardly a metric that says much. Read the Pew article. A large proportion are college educated and most feds make roughly 50k to slightly over $100k. Well I’d hope so.
https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/SR_25.01.07_federal-workers_6.png
The Pew article is great, and documents general approval of federal workers, and highest wage earners…over 200k, are few and many oversee departments and regions with more employees than CEOs making far more.
Again….DOGE is wreaking havoc …dismissing thousands of highly qualified people providing essential government services, to be more efficient? And supposedly to save money when again, federal employees cost us about 1 percent of the total US budget.
They are doing this to abolish regulations, oversight and law enforcement that protect all of us. Why? Because this will enable corporations and the wealthiest among us, to further load up even more wealth for themselves. They view us as peasants, worker bees. Open your eyes.
You're starting to wake up to the fact that the streamlining of the federal government will involve much more than repurposing the federal work force. Cherry-picking the elements of the Pew study don't change the fact that the average federal employee is paid 106,000 dollars and enjoyed until now benefits, job security, and a pension that many would envy.
You're entirely right to point out that inefficient, but often talented, employees are only part of the problem. Regulatory capture means that the government is already serving special interests, rather than the electorate, and has been for the last century, or two.
Your contention that billionaires just now for the first time are controlling the levers of power for self interest is stunning and betrays a faith in fair and honest government that is mind-boggling.
The federal agencies you're defending approved "non-addictive" Oxy, and protected big tobacco decades after evidence surfaced of the harms of smoking.
Americans have never been as unhealthy and as poorly-educated dollar for dollar than Americans are now - and you contend that until DOGE showed up everything was hunky-dory. Bureaucrats don't decide government policy, you eagerly and humbly execute the will of the people, like it or not. If you're all as capable of excellence as you contend, I'd guess you'd be leaping at the opportunity to earn far more and be much more successful in the private sector - not clinging to the government tit.
Wow. Well I’ve seen laziness in every private sector job I’ve worked too. Finally after 6 years of college I worked and paid for myself, I landed my dream job in a federal agency of professionals. During my career, I knew two employees that weren’t pulling their weight. The rest were to a person, hard working, conscientious, and loved their jobs and mission, and understood we worked for the American public. I believe when people go to school and train for a profession they are passionate about, most become very good employees. As for not worrying about losing their jobs, every few years we worried about and worked through budget cuts. Now DOGE is firing, arbitrarily and without explanation, and for no wrong done, tens of thousands of great employees who worked and to earn and keep their positions. Are there slackers, sure, as there are in the private sector.
DOGE is not trying to save us money, federal employees cost us about 1 percent of the US budget. After Obama’s hiring freeze, we we down to numbers of federal employees we had in the late 60s. They are not rooting out slackers or the corrupt because they make no attempt to identify them. DOGE, led by a a billionaire who makes his money with billions of federal dollars contracts (he just got what, 200b for rocket launches?), is destroying federal agencies whose duties are to implement laws and regulations. Regulations that can, and should cost corporations money. Musks companies have several pending court cases for violating numerous regs. He is getting rid of agencies and therefore regs, and so paving his and his cronies way to even more riches.
It seems you're one of the folks who should be thanked and employed. Hospital workers, teachers, police people, and social workers and other professional workers often demonstrate similar levels of excellence.
Blaming DOGE for executing efficiently what tens of millions of Americans have been demanding for decades puts the cart before the horse. Eliminating redundancy and other forms of waste is long overdue. Institutional inertia, politics, careerism, and sclerosis impedes your ability to perform at maximum levels. The fact that public employees and those in many private sector unions can only be fired with great difficulty further impedes efforts to streamline and improve workflows and outcomes. Whatever the areas we may agree upon, or not, no serious effort has ever been made to modernize government services. If you haven't done so yet, please plug in to Elon's X feed, or other DOGE sources. Offer constructive criticism where warranted.
What I do know is that my own income as a non-tenured academic flat-lined decades ago, while my workload steadily increased while working in both public and private education.
I'm one of hundreds of millions worldwide who saw costs rise while wages stagnated for decades, even as I continued to acquire certifications, experience and professional recognition. More managers were hired, fiefs expanded, new buildings were built, textbooks and IT placed in classrooms, while instructor pay in real terms and student performance declined.
My wife and I adjusted, worked, made sacrifices and sensible investments, put our kids through good schools, and lead good lives. But we don't make six figures for pushing paper and would both much rather give garbage collectors and teachers a raise, rather than see another nickel go to bloated bureaucracies and those committed to institutional waste and graft.
You sound smart - I'm sure you'll land on your feet. Best of luck, sincerely, if you're on those under the axe.
I never made six figures and supervised 3 to 7 people, and personally worked on projects that kept people working, projects worth millions, and court challenges worth millions. Our AO administered millions and made 50 k. We typically made less than our counterparts in the private sector. You’ve seem to not understand, they are arbitrarily firing those who save you money…experienced people working to make your life better. They could fire the entire government and not help the debt one bit. Musk gets billions, not millions, to support his Mars missions. He fires people that keep SS checks coming, keep funds moving to rural hospitals, clean water in your homes, warns of upcoming dangerous storms, research cancer, you get my drift. All for 1% of the budget, Why don’t we pause some the Mars missions, the billions spent, and solve the debt?
Silo is frequently the best solution to mismanaged organizations.
You extract talent from garbage organizations - like any government agency ever - place them in strong positions with great tools and great people around them and let them solve the same recurring problem every garbage organization has got in their particular area of expertise.
Like the 1500 IT experts who do nothing but hand out cell phones and laptops at the IRS. 10 guys could do that function as a sideline or “additional duty.”
They can structure FOIA into a compact, muscular organization that gets it done smooth, easy, 100x more efficient, and blutfeld can blow it out his stein.
I believe I understand the role and concept of FOIA but the actual process of obtaining documents seems a little less clear. From the staff numbers and your description, it seems heavily labor-intensive. But I recall past stories where documents that should have been released aren’t, or release seems delayed purposely.
My question: Is any of the process automated to allow the requester to obtain documents without assistance of an employee? Is there a good reason that for most documents, assuming they are properly cataloged, can’t be obtained by an online search by the customer?
ANOTHER ITEM in RACKET LIBRARY RELATED TO THIS TIMELINE
Do Your Own Research: How to File Your Own Freedom of Information Requests
Interview with Allan Blutstein, who helps run a site that explains the ins and outs of filing FOIA requests.
https://www.racket.news/p/do-your-own-research-how-to-file
Expediency in responding to FOIA requests lies more with organizational alignment than actual headcount. Given the propensity to stall and release the absolute minimum, current staff were more focused on redacting and navigating minimal compliance rather than providing information. Eliminating the three-toed sloth population with new and contracted help — combined with top-down direction for transparency — will (hopefully) improve the FOIA process.
The goal is no need to FOIA if it's all openly available.
There's no way in hell it will "all" be openly available. There are numerous laws pertaining to privacy, confidential business information, attorney privileged and a host of other categories exempt from disclosure under FOIA (or at all).
When my Taxpayer dollars are spent I have a right to know just what the H it is being spent on. The only exception that I approve of is The DOD . Advance research in weapons etc does need protection . Sad that the info on such seems to be open to foreign spying via China especially. More so than medical research . The shit show that Facui and company was involved in should have ended with him and anyone helping him stood up before a firing squad and shot for attempted murder of an entire Nation IE the USA . How the H did the US Gov. who's main job is protection of the Citizens of the USA let the likes of Fauci get away with such. Now being retired with a retirement in the thousands a month paid for by the very Citizens he and his lacky's attempted to MURDER!
There's LONG been an abuse of the classification system, to where inconvenient truth also gets classified, just to avoid embarrassment or accountability. I point to the preponderance of data purposefully hidden around the entire covid saga and it's follow-up injection scheme (I won't call it a vaccine as it never was one, and indeed, the definition of a "vaccine" was modified to avoid criteria needed to prove it works.
It doesn't matter what you do or do not approve of. There are myriads of legal information restrictions passed by Congress on the Executive Branch. You have the right to see exactly what Congress allows you to see and that is all.
I know you are basically right but that does not make it ok . If congress , house and senate passes and the President signs then yes it becomes law unless it does not pass muster before the Supreme Court when challenged.
"what Congress allows" Now there is a statement by , must be, a government worker. If so then I hope your are one of the one's fired .
NOTHING passed by Congress is law unless also signed by the President of the USA.
Everything Congress passes becomes law unless vetoed by the President, and they can then overrule the veto by a 2/3rds vote. I'll view the rest of your comment(s) in light of that extremely large error.
“The dildo of consequences rarely arrives lubed.” I’ve been using that meme a lot recently.
Just a guess on my part , 75% of FOIA request are just BS . The Fed.s would not have the problem if it was not for the secrecy the Fed.s continue to hide from the Citizens of the USA.
90% of Gov. actions should not be held from the Citizens. Sure DOD has , as it should have, a lot of info which should not be disclosed to the Public. Otherwise We the citizens should not be kept in the dark as to what the Gov. has or is doing. That goes from local Gov. all the way up to the Federal Gov.
FOIA is illegal. Every piece of information created by our govt is owned by the people. Aside from top secret or classified (which too much is) we the people are the reason information is created and we own it all. The govt has no right to keep us from any of it. I’d also add the DOGE is installing AI within every agency and maybe just possibly those let go won’t be needed any longer as information will finally just become data that can be looked up and none of these requests will be required. Just sayin’