United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2006-07-26 monographic deposited born digital 66 p. GA 1.13:GAO-06-1022T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-06-1022T P0b002ee18038db36 f:d061022t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-06-1022T machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-06-1022T GAO-06-1022T Executive orders Freedom of information Government information Government information dissemination Information access Information disclosure Reporting requirements Accountability Federal agencies Statistical data Testimony A57484 The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes that federal agencies must provide the public with access to government information, thus enabling them to learn about government operations and decisions. To help ensure appropriate implementation, the act requires that agencies report annually to the Attorney General, providing specific information about their FOIA operations. In addition, a recent Executive Order directs agencies to develop plans to improve their FOIA operations, including, among other things, goals to reduce backlogs in FOIA requests. GAO has reported previously on the contents of these annual reports for 25 major agencies. For this hearing, GAO was asked to testify both on the annual reports for fiscal year 2005 and on the recently developed improvement plans for these 25 agencies. GAO based its testimony on its ongoing work on these topics. Upon completion of its ongoing review, GAO expects to make recommendations to improve agency implementation of the Executive Order, including efforts to reduce and eliminate backlog. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-06-1022T/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-06-1022T.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-06-1022T/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-06-1022T.pdf GAO-06-1022T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-06-1022T Testimony GAO-06-1022T; Freedom of Information Act: Preliminary Analysis of Processing Trends Shows Importance of Improvement Plans; Executive orders Freedom of information Government information Government information dissemination Information access Information disclosure Reporting requirements Accountability Federal agencies Statistical data Public Law 99-570