Don't Call Us, We'll Call You

So much for Obama's pledge for a more transparent federal government.

The Department of Homeland Security won't even make the phone numbers of their PR people public.

Some federal agencies post the office phone numbers of public affairs staff on their websites.

Not the Department of Homeland Security, which believes their release poses "a clearly unwarranted invasion" of employee privacy.

That was the department's response when it denied a Federal Times Freedom of Information Act request for the office phone numbers of its official spokesman. Personal privacy exemptions to FOIA are more commonly used to block disclosure of personnel or medical files.

DHS' response typifies what many see as the Obama administration's unfulfilled promise to shed more light on government operations through FOIA, the key federal open records law.

The day after President Obama took office in January 2009, he directed agencies to "adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure" when responding to Freedom of Information Act requests.

In the case of DHS, a Federal Times reporter sought the phone numbers of individual public affairs staffers after having difficulty reaching them through a central email address for media inquiries. The agency eventually released a 58-page directory of public affairs staff, but redacted every phone number under the privacy exemption.