Mar 18, 2007

FOIA Amendments Pending

Congress is taking action on the many problems that have arisen over the years with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Many agencies are essentially stonewalling the public with lengthy delays in responding to FOIA requests. Social Security may not be the worst offender, but it has had its moments. Two problems that come to mind are Social Security's refusal to provide statistics showing the reversal rates of individual Administrative Law Judges by name and Social Security's assertion that it could not find any report on the experiments it did in the past on dispensing with Appeals Council review.

The bill that has made the most progress is H.R. 1309, which has been reported out of Committee in the House of Representatives. Here is a link to the Committee report.

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