The easiest job in the world?

24 Aug 2007 // Apparently, it's FOIA officer Carol Ehrlich in the White House's Office of Administration.

The Justice Department is claiming the office, which handles (surprise) administrative functions for the White House, is not covered by FOIA, despite the fact that it has a FOIA officer and has responded to FOIA requests in the past. In fact, an executive order has the office was under a FOIA improvement plan. No matter, Justice said.

From the AP story:

In its filing in U.S. District Court, the Justice Department said, "to be sure, OA currently has regulations implementing FOIA and has not taken the position" previously that it is exempt from the Freedom Of Information Act. To justify a change, the court papers rely on a court ruling in the 1990s that the National Security Council was not subject to FOIA. Previously, the NSC had handled FOIA requests.

This is more fallout over millions of missing emails and the continued investigation into the firing of U.S. attorneys.
Justice's argument is prompted by a FOIA request from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. CREW's executive director Melanie Sloan was not impressed with Justice's claim:

The newly minted argument that the Office of Administration is not an agency is akin to the Vice President's declaration that he is not a part of the executive branch. One has to wonder if this is an effort by the White House to keep secret the details of how millions of White House email suddenly went missing.

Anyway, if you went to school with Carol and are looking to catch up, now is a good time to call. Turns out, her workload just got a lot lighter.