2.3: FOIA Backlogs

Reduce FOIA backlogs.

Other Information:

Although many components dramatically reduced or even eliminated their backlogs, the Department of Justice’s overall FOIA backlog increased from FY 2008 to FY 2009 by 470 requests. In significant respects, that increase is a consequence of important policy changes at the FBI designed to provide more complete responses to requests. In recent years, when a request was made to FBI headquarters, records from field offices were considered not responsive; to obtain records from both headquarters and field offices, a request had to be sent to all of the offices in question. Reasonable searches were conducted consistent with that requirement. The FBI recently eliminated that requirement. Now, when the FBI receives a request at its headquarters, it identifies and processes both headquarters records and field office records. The FBI’s processing demand has increased substantially, by nearly a million pages since April 2009. The results have been positive, from a transparency perspective: Since this policy change, the FBI has reduced by 20% its “no records” determinations and increased by 30% the number of pages responsive to requests. From a processing perspective, this change has imposed significant extra burdens, and the FBI’s backlog increased in FY 2009 by 635 requests – more than offsetting the rest of the Department’s overall backlog reduction. The Department of Justice views any backlog as a matter of significance that should be addressed. The seven components that are part of the Department’s Backlog Reduction Plan (http://www.justice.gov/oip/doj‐backlogreduction‐ plan100608.pdf) should continue any of the backlog reduction steps necessary to bring about or continue reductions in the numbers of backlogged requests. All Department components with backlogs should continue to work to reduce those backlogs and close their 10 oldest pending requests each year by implementing the steps and meeting the milestones outlined below. Staffing Considerations: 1. Determine within 30 days what vacancies presently exist for positions with primary responsibility for FOIA operations, or for any position that solely performs FOIA duties for the component. 2. Within 30 days of the determination in step 1, initiate action to recruit or complete the recruiting process in order to fill any such vacancies. 3. In addition to steps 1 and 2 of this part, determine within 30 days whether the component needs to obtain contractor support for FOIA operations. 4. Within 30 days of the determination in step 3, initiate action to obtain contractor support if necessary. Processing Considerations: 1. Determine within 30 days whether second‐level (or higher) review capacity should be increased such that initial‐level processing recommendations can be reviewed more efficiently. This might involve the addition of one or more additional reviewers of initial processing recommendations or the re‐assignment of work flow within the component. 2. Within 30 days of the determination in step 1 of this part, initiate action to add such review capacity if necessary. 3. Determine within 30 days whether the component has too many levels of review such that the review process can be streamlined. 4. Within 30 days of the determination in step 3 of this part, initiate action to eliminate redundant levels of review. Component Head Involvement: 1. Component staff will provide monthly backlog updates to the Component head. 2. Component heads will monitor the monthly backlog updates and initiate action to implement additional steps if necessary in order to reduce the backlog by at least 10 percent per year and to close the 10 oldest requests pending per year. 3. Component heads will provide twice‐yearly backlog reporting to the Department's Chief FOIA Officer, on April 1 and October 1. Such reports will include the actual number of backlogged requests as well as the date of the oldest pending request, and should report measurable progress towards the yearly reduction milestone. As discussed above, the increase in the FBI’s processing demands is extraordinary, requiring additional steps beyond this plan. The Bureau is actively engaged in hiring additional personnel, and it projects that the steps it is taking to increase staffing and thereby expand processing efforts will contribute significantly to a backlog reduction. Nonetheless, given the significant increase in its processing burden brought on by the additional offices that it searches in response to each request made to its headquarters, these efforts will take some time to have a positive backlog reduction effect. The Department expects that it will reduce its non‐FBI backlog more quickly.

Stakeholder(s):

• FBI


• Chief FOIA Officers

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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