The Department of Transportation has published its annual FOIA report for fiscal year 2024. Below is a summary of the key statistics:
18,345 requests received, a 7 percent increase from FY 2023 (17,136).
16,080 requests processed, a 2.2 percent decrease from FY 2023 (16,458).
8,048 backlogged requests, a 36 percent increase from the end of FY 2023 (5,913).
166 appeals received, more than twice as many as it received in FY 2023 (78).
156 appeals processed, exactly twice as many as it processed in FY 2023 (78).
226 backlogged appeals, three fewer (229) from the end of FY 2023.
Average responses time for processed perfected requests was 76.1 days for simple requests and 268.5 days for complex requests. NHTSA had the slowest response times of all components: 127.5 average days for simple requests and 552.1 average days for complex requests.
$17.2 million in total processing and litigation-related costs, a 7.5 percent decrease from the $18.6 million in total costs incurred in FY 2023.