The Obama administration is pushing government agencies to redouble their efforts to be more transparent to the public and, in particular, do more to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, according to a post on the White House blog by Norm Eisen, the president's special counsel on ethics and government reform.

Eisen highlights a March 16 memo written by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Bob Bauer, counsel to the president, urging agency and department heads to update FOIA guidance and training materials and to assess whether adequate resources are being allocated to responding to FOIA requests.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a group that has filed numerous FOIA requests, praised the administration for its efforts but said it still has "a long way to go" to make agencies, such as the Defense department, more transparent.