Two more cabinet department, Labor and Transportation, released their fiscal year 2022 FOIA reports ahead of next Wednesday’s posting deadline. Here are the highlights—or lowlights, as the case may be:
Dep’t of Transportation
19,090 requests received and 18,958 processed, a deficit of 132 requests. In 2021., DOT received 15,740 requests and processed 14,754 requests, a deficit of 986 requests.
Request backlog increased 11.4 percent, from 4,811 requests in 2021 to 5,362 in 2022.
Appeal backlog climbed from 161 in 2021 to 222 in 2022, more than a 37 percent increase.
Average overall time to respond to processed perfected requests was 51 days for “simple” requests (with the Secretary’s Office clocking the fastest time at 7.3 days), whereas “complex” requests took an overall average of .285 days. Of note, the Federal Railroad Administration required an average of 182 days to respond to “simple” requests and 243 days for “complex” requests.
The Federal Aviation Administration reported having the 10 oldest pending requests, which ranged from about 5 to 6 years old.
$18.3 million in processing and litigation costs, with a total of $163,779 in requester fees collected.
Dep’t of Labor
14,491 requests received, a 3.4 percent increase from the 13,560 requests received in 2021.
14,335 requests processed, a 2.2. percent increase from the 14,022 requests processed in 2021.
Request backlog increased 17.2 percent, from 1216 requests in 2021 to 1426 requests in 2022.
Appeal backlog fell from 295 in 2021 to 286 in 2022, a 3 percent decrease.
Average time to respond to processed perfected requests was 49 days for “simple” requests and 250 days for “complex” requests.”
$18.3 million in total costs, collecting only $163,779 in processing fees.