FOIA Requests Gather Dust

What's the oldest pending FOIA request in government? One sent on May 5, 1987, by the Church of Scientology to the State Department asking whether the department had gathered information about the organization, the New York Times reports today. According to a survey conducted by the National Security Archive, 16 other FOIA requests in various agencies have been pending for more than 15 years, even though agencies are supposed to respond to queries within 20 days and provide documents in a timely fashion.