First of all, I don't believe you can pressure a gov't agency, especially one tied to the financial end of things, to provide information about their investigation. However, I agree there should at least be some word as to the current status, such as ongoing, complete or turned over to another dept. that they could share with us. Then depending on their response we could determine a course of action.
Personally hiring a lawyer to make inquiries on our behalf does NOT make any sense to me. I mean, how often have you heard about a branch of any gov't being forthcoming to someone just because he's a lawyer representing some folks with question? Just my opinion.
Retred