DHS needs to improve FOIA processing, cost reporting, congressional investigators say

Although the Homeland Security Department pledged three years ago to steadily reduce backlogged Freedom of Information Act requests, the number has risen even higher, congressional investigators said.

DHS made some progress by the end of fiscal 2012 to reduce the backlog, but the numbers have risen to more than 50,000 in fiscal 2013, an increase of more than 9,000 since 2011, according to the Government Accountability Office report (pdf) released Nov. 19.

Overall, the department and its component agencies reported processing more than 200,000 FOIA requests in 2013, more than any other federal agency. It also had the most backlogged requests, more than half the total 95,000 backlogged requests across the federal government. Continue>>>

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