Happy Sunshine Week, which kicked off on Sunday, March 14, 2021. The National Archives and Records Administration will host a virtual celebration on Monday, March 15, 2021, from 1pm to 3pm. Watch the livestream on the National Archives’ YouTube Channel.
We have crunched the fiscal year 2020 FOIA data posted by the Department of Justice on FOIA.gov. Here are the highlights:
Agencies received 790,772 requests, a 7.9 percent decrease from 2019 (858,952 requests).
Agencies processed 772,952 requests, a 12 percent decrease from 2019 (877,964 requests).
Unfulfilled requests climbed to 203,998, a 9.6 percent increase from 2019 (186,178 requests).
Backlogged requests climbed to 141,794, a 17.4 percent increase from 2019 (120,796 requests).
Average time to process “simple requests” was 32.28 days, a 17.9 percent improvement (39.30 days)
Agency processing costs were $553,234,056.70, a 13.8 percent increase from 2019 ($486,194,199.50).
Agency litigation costs were $42,913,963.52, a 10.9 percent increase from 2019 ($38,710,512.60).
Fees collected from requesters totaled $2,113,456.41, a 17 percent decrease from 2019 ($2,547,638.48).
Note: Agency processing costs and litigation costs in 2020 are historic highs.