FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: GAO report addresses DHS FOIA backlog

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

FOIA Backlog Again Increasing at DHS

By FEDweek, Oct. 21, 2019

The backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests at DHS has started increasing again after the department succeeded in cutting it by two-thirds over 2014-2015, GAO has said.

DHS had reduced the backlog to about 35,400 through department-wide steps such as including sending monthly emails to its components on backlog statistics and conducting oversight as well as actions by the components themselves. However, since then the number has risen, reaching nearly 54,000 last year.

Read more here.

GAO report available here.