Federal officials to defend responses to records requests

Officials from several federal agencies will defend their public records programs at a hearing of a House Oversight subcommittee, a week after the committee criticized many departments' Freedom of Information Act practices.

"It is clear that agencies continue to make real progress in applying the presumption of openness, improving the efficiency of their FOIA processes, reducing their backlogs of pending FOIA requests, making more information available proactively and expanding their use of technology," the Justice Department's Melanie Ann Pustay says in testimony prepared for the House Oversight Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform Subcommittee. "While there is always more work to be done, for the third year in a row, agencies have shown that they are improving FOIA compliance and increasing transparency."

A House Oversight report released last week gave federal agencies a C- grade for their Freedom of Information programs. The Homeland Security, Defense, and Justice departments, which field the highest number of requests, were all given D grades for their performance.

Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Archives are also scheduled to testify, along with a representative of the non-profit watchdog group OMB Watch.