From: Randall Parker 

John,

You are missing context. How do agencies normally respond to FIA requests?
My impression (and I've read about costs for FIA responses in the past) is
that they
routinely go over the 30 day limit because it is incredibly easy for large numbers of
filers to make requests which each require man-months or man-years to respond to.
That takes budget. Does Congress appropriate enough money to agencies to do
FIA request processing and everything else they charge agencies to do? Nah,
of course not.

The UPI article doesn't prove intent to cover up cases of mad cow.

BTW, a Canadian friend tells me Canada used to have something like 180 full time
inspectors for its cattle industry but that was cut back to 15 part-timers. Is this
true? Have any full-time positions been restored since your one mad cow case? I'd
expect there'd be pressure now to staff up. My guess is your government is
now testing at a faster rate in response to that case and the US government
will do likewise in response to its one case.

John Beamish wrote:

>
> Finally, UPI threatened legal action in early December if the agency did not
> respond.
>
> In a Dec. 17 letter to UPI from USDA Freedom of Information Act Office
> Andrea E. Fowler, the agency wrote: "Your request has been forwarded to the
> (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) for processing and to search
> for the record responsive to your earlier request."
>

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