The Associated Press reports that the Obama administration has denied Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests 466,872 times during the 2009 budget year, up from 312,683 under Bush’s last full budget year in 2008. More specifically, federal agencies have denied 70,779 FOIA requests under an exemption that allows the government to hide details of its decision-making process, despite public directives from Obama that agencies cut back on the use of that exemption. During the last year of the Bush administration, the exemption was used just 47,395 times.