The U.S. Department of Agriculture reduced its request backlog by 18 percent in fiscal year 2021 (from 2546 requests in FY 2020 to 2081 requests in FY 2021), according to its recently published annual FOIA report. The Department received 20,956 requests in FY 2021, an eight percent decrease from FY 2020 (22.810 requests); the Department processed 21,815 requests in FY 2021, a five percent decrease from FY 2020 (23,103 requests).