The Department of the Interior, whose request backlog increased nearly 200 percent between FY 2017 and FY 2022, has released its annual FOIA report for FY 2023. Here is a summary of the notable data:
Requests received: 7,085 a 10 percent increase from FY 2022, when it received 6.405 requests.
Requests processed: 7,388, a nearly 20 percent increase from FY 2022, when it processed 6,167 requests.
Backlog of requests: 4,320, down 10 percent from 4,808 at end of FY 2022.
Appeals received: 205, which is just over 10 percent higher than in FY 2022 (229).
Appeals processed: 299, which is just under 10 percent higher than in FY 2022 (273)
Backlog of appeals: 217, down nearly 31 percent from 314 in FY 2022.
Costs: A total of S18.14 million, with $17.35 million in administrative costs and $794k in litigation costs. The department’s total costs in FY 2023 were 2.3 percent lower than its total costs in FY 2022 ($18.57 million).