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Committee member presses agency over six unanswered letters to OMB
Summary
A committee member challenged an agency official over six letters sent to the Office of Management and Budget that, the member said, received no responses. The official said some requests sought pre-decisional or court-related material and pledged to speed up the agency's letter-response process.
A Committee member pressed an agency official about the agency's failure to respond to six letters sent to the Office of Management and Budget, saying none had been answered and questioning why the official's new position had not changed that outcome.
The exchange focused on oversight and transparency. The Committee member said, "None of the letters that I've sent...to OMB, none of them have been responded to," and later called a "zero out of six a pretty bad batting average," arguing the agency could at minimum reply to acknowledge constraints or legal limits.
An Agency official responded that some of the letters had asked for disclosure of pre-decisional and deliberative information and material directly related to ongoing court actions, which limited what could be released. "We are committed to improving our letter process," the official said, adding that the agency is implementing a new process intended to speed up response timelines.
The Committee member pressed that even if legal or litigation issues exist, the agency can still send a reply explaining those restraints. The agency official did not dispute that responses had not been provided in every case but emphasized the need to protect deliberative material and ongoing legal matters while promising procedural fixes.
No formal vote or formal directive was recorded in the transcript; the most recent development reported was the agency's pledge to revise its letter-handling process to improve response times.
