Make no mistake, we are a society obessed with information.
The Government Accounting Office (GAO) is reporting that citizen Freedom of Information Act requests have increased by 71 percent from 2002 to 2004.
Testimony before the Subcommittee on Government Management, Finance, and Accountability, Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives Wednesday, May 11, reported one of the sharpest rise in requests since implementation of the Freedom of Information Act in 1991.
According to the report, citizens made more than 3.6 million FOIA requests in 2004, of which 92 percent had been grants. The Veterans Administration, Social Security Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Homeland Security accounted for 89 percent of the requests. At the same time, a backlog on requests has seen a 14 percent increase between 2002 to 2004.