Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
(CREW) has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) for failing to respond to Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request about its PR contracts.
The FOIA request stems from revelations that the U.S.
Department of Education paid pundit Armstrong Williams $240,000
to promote the Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind"
school-standards law (see PR News, Jan. 26).
The suit alleges the USDA failed to respond to the FOIA request
within the mandated 20-day period. CREW, which wants to find out
how many taxpayer dollars are going for PR contracts, filed a
similar complaint against the Social Security Administration
in February.