According to Federal News Radio, the DOJ summary of FY 2011 Annual FOIA Reports reveals that the number of requests are up and backlogs are up despite DOJ claiming there is more spending on FOIA.
I'm really not sure what to make of these numbers. I'd like to know if the spending increases have anything to do with agencies hiring contractors to do FOIA processing, technology upgrades or other factors that weren't around ten years ago. Additionally, I think we need to see another years worth of numbers before we decide if something is a blip or a trend.
I think it could even be caused by an increase in the complexity of requests received. As more agencies are doing everything on "E-mail" there are a lot more records responsive to requests (I believe) than in the past and agencies are tending to "hoard" information "until no longer needed" which again means you have more responsive records. It takes longer to search and even more time to do a review of all those records. One thing that is never accounted for is the "volume of records" in a FOIA request. A request that is 10 pages vs. a request that is 10,000 pages is merely counted as "1" request. Not that I am advocating we be required to start tracking the number of pages processed, but in my experience from several agencies and discussion with colleagues, the need to review those "volumes of records" is likely what is contributing to the backlog and reduced processing times (to include longer times for consultations).
Posted by: Jennifer | September 14, 2012 at 10:58 AM