Issa gives FCC an 'A' for tracking information requests

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has come under fire from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for stonewalling his requests for information, received an A grade for its management of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in a House Republican report released last week.

The report, prepared by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) staff, rated federal agencies for how they track and record FOIA requests. The report did not rate how long agencies take to respond to the requests or how often they suppress information by citing exemptions to public disclosure rules. The report also did not address how agencies handle requests from lawmakers.

Overall, Issa's report card gave the federal government a grade of C-.

Grassley has pledged to block President Obama's two FCC nominees unless the agency releases internal records on its review of wireless company LightSquared. Although the FCC has now moved to block LightSquared's planned 4G network over concerns it would interfere with GPS devices, Grassley questions why the FCC allowed the company to get as far as it did in the regulatory process. 

The commission has not responded to Grassley's request. FCC officials say agencies usually only cooperate with probes from lawmakers who serve on committees with jurisdiction over them. Although Grassley is the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, he does not serve on any panels that oversee the FCC.

“The FCC gets an ‘F’ for its handling of requests from 99.6 percent of members of Congress,” Grassley told The Hill in reaction to the report card, referring to the portion of Congress that does not chair a committee with jurisdiction over the FCC.

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