It's not easy being transparent.

• Position: FOIA

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Federal agencies are not being as transparent as President Barack Obama would like them to be. In fact, a study of how they handle the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveals that some of them are having trouble with Obama's "new era of open government" mandate.

According to the National Security Archive, a private group that publishes declassified government information and uses the FOIA and lawsuits to gain access to official records, 90 agencies were studied on how they have responded to Obama's directives to open more records, the Associated Press (AP) said. The group discovered that some agencies have improved their transparency, while others didn't appear to get Obama's memo.

When he became president, Obama rescinded George W. Bush's policy of withholding information first and foremost. Obama ordered agencies to release all information unless the disclosure was prohibited by law or would cause harm.

According to the report, the Obama administration "has clearly stated a new policy direction for open government but has not conquered the challenge of communicating and enforcing that message throughout the executive branch."

The report found several troubling issues, including:

* Old requests still linger, and 33 of the 90 agencies now have an older unfulfilled request than they did on September 30, 2008.

* Five agencies reported releasing less and withholding more information during the 2009 budget year, which includes the first nine months of the Obama...