House Committee Gets Report on Lagging FOIA Performance

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Federal agencies are taking longer to answer Freedom of Information Act requests and the backlog of requests had risen 43 percent since 2002, the Governmental Accountability Office said in a report to the a House government reform subcommittee. The GAO report was included in the testimony to the committee chaired by Rep. Todd Platts, R-PA, which is exploring FOIA problems and both executive branch and legislative responses to FOIA problems. The GAO report showed the quality of service to requesters varies sharply among agencies. (7/27/06)