The National Archives and Records Administration has released its annual FOIA report for fiscal year 2023. Here is a summary of the key data:
Requests received: 62,505, an increase of 317 percent from 14,975 in FY 2022.
Requests processed: 66,064, an increase of 341 percent from 14,977 in FY 2022.
Backlog of requests: 6,410, a 35.7 percent decline from 9,969 in FY 2022.
Appeals received: 121, an increase of 49 percent from 81 in FY 2022.
Appeals processed: 64, an increase of 190 percent from 22 in FY 2022.
Backlog of appeals: 224, an increase of 44.5 percent from 155 in FY 2022.
Total costs: $1,688,400, with administrative costs of $1,632,400, and litigation costs of $56k. Total costs in FY 2023 were 9.6 percent higher than in FY 2022 ($1,540,000).
Processing time: The median processing time for all perfected, “complex” requests was 897 days.