Freedom of Information Act: Preliminary Analysis of Processing Trends Shows Importance of Improvement Plans, Full-text GAO-06-1022T, and Highlights, July 26, 2006.
“According to data reported by agencies in their annual reports, the public continues to request and receive increasing amounts of information from the federal government through FOIA…Despite processing more requests, agencies have not kept up with the increase in requests being made: the number of pending requests carried over from year to year has been steadily increasing, rising to about 200,000 in fiscal year 2005–43 percent more than in 2002. The rate of increase in requests pending is also growing: the increase from fiscal year 2004 to 2005 is 24 percent, compared to 11 percent from 2003 to 2004. Most of the agency improvement plans discussed reducing backlog, but not all consistently followed the Executive Order or implementing guidance provided by the Justice Department.”
Press release: “Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) who have forged an effective political-odd-couple partnership in pushing three bills they have jointly authored to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) were lead witnesses Wednesday at a congressional hearing on FOIA. The House Government Reform Committee Subcommittee On Government Management, Finance, and Accountability held a hearing on Implementing FOIA: Does the Bush Administration’s Executive Order Improve Processing?“
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.