House Panel Probes FOIA Compliance

Or rather, the lack of it

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and ranking minority member Elijah Cummings have opened what could be the most comprehensive congressional review in three decades of executive branch compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.

Issa is a California Republican, Cummings a Maryland Democrat. Such joint legislative efforts are rare on Capitol Hill, thanks in part to the hyper-partisan atmosphere found in Congress these days.

In a six-page, single-spaced letter dispatched earlier this week, Issa and Cummings posed multiple questions to Melanie Ann Pustay, director of the Department of Justice's Office of Information Policy.