Oversight Chief: Show Me Your FOIA Requests

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee wants federal agencies to turn over information about all of the Freedom of Information Act requests they have receved in the past five years.

The Associated Press reports that the committee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wants to get the documents to determine just how well the Obama administration is faring in its transparency effort. The committee is looking for lists of who sought federal documents and what happened to their requests.

Agencies have until Feb. 15 to respond to Issa's demand. Meeting the deadline could involve a major data dump. AP reports that the Defense Department alone got more than 73,000 FOIA requests last year, and the Justice Department received almost 64,000.