Freedom of Information Act: Processing Trends Show Importance of 
Improvement Plans (30-MAR-07, GAO-07-441).			 
                                                                 
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes that federal	 
agencies must provide access to their information, enabling the  
public to learn about government operations and decisions. To	 
help ensure proper implementation, the act requires that agencies
report annually to the Attorney General, giving specific	 
information about their FOIA operations, such as numbers of	 
requests received and processed and median processing times.	 
Also, a recent Executive Order directs agencies to develop plans 
to improve FOIA operations, including decreasing backlog. For	 
this study, GAO was asked to examine the status and trends of	 
FOIA processing at 25 major agencies as reflected in annual	 
reports, as well as the extent to which improvement plans contain
the elements emphasized by the Executive Order. To do so, GAO	 
analyzed the 25 agencies' annual reports and improvement plans.  
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-07-441 					        
    ACCNO:   A67575						        
  TITLE:     Freedom of Information Act: Processing Trends Show       
Importance of Improvement Plans 				 
     DATE:   03/30/2007 
  SUBJECT:   Executive orders					 
	     Federal agencies					 
	     Federal Information Processing Standards		 
	     Federal law					 
	     Freedom of information				 
	     Government information				 
	     Government information dissemination		 
	     Information disclosure				 
	     Reporting requirements				 
	     Reports management 				 

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GAO-07-441

   

     * [1]Report to Congressional Requesters

          * [2]March 2007

     * [3]FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

          * [4]Processing Trends Show Importance of Improvement Plans

     * [5]Contents

          * [6]Results in Brief
          * [7]Background

               * [8]The FOIA Process at Federal Agencies
               * [9]The Privacy Act Also Provides Individuals with Access
                 Rights
               * [10]Roles of OMB and Justice in FOIA Implementation
               * [11]Annual FOIA Reports Were Established by 1996 Amendments
               * [12]Executive Order Required Agencies to Take Several
                 Actions to Improve FOIA Operations

          * [13]Status of FOIA Processing Appears Similar to Previous Years,
            but Limitations in Annual Report Data Present Challenges

               * [14]Not All Data from USDA's Farm Service Agency Are
                 Reliable, but Its Improvement Plan Provides Opportunity to
                 Address This Weakness
               * [15]Except for SSA, Increases in Requests Received and
                 Processed Are Generally Slowing
               * [16]Most Requests Are Granted in Full
               * [17]Processing Times Vary, but Broad Generalizations Are
                 Limited
               * [18]Agency Pending Cases Continue to Increase
               * [19]No Regular Mechanism Is in Place for Aggregating Annual
                 Report Data

          * [20]Agency Improvement Plans Generally Included Areas of
            Improvement Emphasized by the Executive Order

               * [21]All Agencies Addressed Reducing Backlog, and Most Set
                 Measurable Goals and Milestones
               * [22]Most Agencies Plan to Increase Public Dissemination of
                 Records through Web Sites
               * [23]Most Agency Plans Included Improving Status
                 Communications with FOIA Requesters
               * [24]Agencies Generally Plan to Rely on FOIA Reference Guides
                 to Increase Public Awareness of FOIA Processing

          * [25]Conclusions
          * [26]Matters for Congressional Consideration
          * [27]Recommendations for Executive Action
          * [28]Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

     * [29]Scope and Methodology
     * [30]Comments from the Department of Agriculture
     * [31]Comments from the Department of Justice
     * [32]Comments from the Department of the Treasury
     * [33]Comments from the Department of Veterans Affairs
     * [34]Comments from the Agency for International Development
     * [35]Comments from the Environmental Protection Agency
     * [36]Comments from the National Science Foundation
     * [37]Freedom of Information Act Exemptions
     * [38]Median Processing Times Reported

          * [39]Agency for International Development
          * [40]Central Intelligence Agency
          * [41]Department of Homeland Security
          * [42]Department of Commerce
          * [43]Department of Defense
          * [44]Department of Energy
          * [45]Department of the Interior
          * [46]Department of Justice
          * [47]Department of Labor
          * [48]Department of Transportation
          * [49]Department of Education
          * [50]Environmental Protection Agency
          * [51]General Services Administration
          * [52]Department of Health and Human Services
          * [53]Department of Housing and Urban Development
          * [54]National Aeronautics and Space Administration
          * [55]Nuclear Regulatory Commission
          * [56]National Science Foundation
          * [57]Office of Personnel Management
          * [58]Small Business Administration
          * [59]Social Security Administration
          * [60]Department of State
          * [61]Department of the Treasury
          * [62]Department of Veterans Affairs

     * [63]GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

Report to Congressional Requesters

March 2007

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

Processing Trends Show Importance of Improvement Plans

Contents

Tables

Figures

Abbreviations

March 30, 2007 Letter

The Honorable William Lacy Clay
Chairman
Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
House of Representatives

The Honorable Todd Platts
House of Representatives

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)^1 establishes that federal agencies
must provide the public with access to government information, thus
enabling them to learn about government operations and decisions. Specific
requests by the public for information through the act have led to
disclosure of waste, fraud, abuse, and wrongdoing in the government, as
well as the identification of unsafe consumer products, harmful drugs, and
serious health hazards.

To help ensure appropriate implementation, the act requires that agencies
provide annual reports on their FOIA operations to the Attorney General;
these reports include information as specified in the act, such as how
many requests were received and processed in the previous fiscal year, how
many requests were pending at the end of the year, and the median times
that agencies or their components took to process requests.^2 Since 2001,
we have provided the Congress with periodic analyses of the contents of
these annual reports.^3

In December 2005, the President issued an Executive Order aimed at
improving agencies' disclosure of information consistent with FOIA.^4
Among other things, this order required each agency to review its FOIA
operations and develop improvement plans;^5 by June 14, 2006, each agency
was to submit a report to the Attorney General and the Director of the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) summarizing the results of the
agency's review and including a copy of its improvement plan. These plans
were to include specific outcome-oriented goals and timetables, by which
the agency head is to evaluate the agency's success in implementing the
plan.

The Executive Order directs agencies in their FOIA improvement plans to
focus on ways to

oeliminate or reduce any backlog of requests;

oincrease reliance on public dissemination of records including through
Web sites;

oimprove communications with requesters about the status of their
requests; and

oincrease public awareness of FOIA processing.

In July 2006, we testified before the Subcommittee on Government
Management, Finance, and Accountability, House Committee on Government
Reform, providing preliminary results of our ongoing analyses of the 2005
annual reports as well as of the improvement plans required by the
Executive Order.^6 This report provides the final results of our
analyses.^7

As agreed, our objectives were to determine (1) the status of agencies'
processing of FOIA requests as reflected in their annual reports for
fiscal years 2002 through 2005, highlighting any trends in these reports
since 2002, and (2) to what extent the agency FOIA improvement plans
contain the elements emphasized by the Executive Order.

To describe statistics on the processing of FOIA requests, we analyzed
annual report data for fiscal years 2002 through 2005 from 25 major
agencies (herein we refer to this scope as governmentwide). We examined
data from the 24 agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act,
plus the Central Intelligence Agency. However, we eliminated one of the 25
agencies--the Department of Agriculture--from our analysis because one of
its major components reported that not all its data were reliable. As a
result, our statistical analysis for this report was based on data from a
total of 24 agencies' annual reports.^8

To determine to what extent the agency plans contained the elements
emphasized by the order, we analyzed the plans for all 25 agencies to
determine whether they addressed each area of improvement that was
emphasized and contained goals and timetables for each.^9 We evaluated the
versions of plans submitted as of December 15, 2006. We also reviewed the
Executive Order itself, implementing guidance issued by OMB and the
Department of Justice, other FOIA guidance issued by Justice, and our past
work in this area. A more detailed description of our scope and
methodology is provided in appendix I.

We conducted our review in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards. We performed our work from May 2006 to January 2007 in
Washington, D.C.

Results in Brief

Based on data reported by 24 major agencies in annual FOIA reports from
2002 to 2005,^10 the public continued to submit more requests for
information from the federal government through FOIA. Despite increasing
the numbers of requests processed, many agencies did not keep pace with
the volume of requests that they received. As a result, the number of
pending requests carried over from year to year has been steadily
increasing. According to agency reports:

oRecently the rate of increase in requests received and processed has
flattened. Except for one agency--the Social Security Administration
(SSA)^11--these increases were only about 3 and 2 percent from 2004 to
2005 (compared to 29 and 27 percent from 2002 to 2005).

oFor most requests processed in fiscal year 2005, responsive records were
provided in full. The percentage (87 percent) is about the same as in
previous years.

oMedian times to process requests varied greatly. These ranged from less
than 10 days for some agency components to more than 100 days at others
(sometimes much more than 100).

oNumbers of pending requests carried over from year to year continue to
increase. Also, the rate of increase is growing.^12

Our ability to generalize in one of these areas--FOIA processing times--is
limited by the form in which the statistics are reported: that is, as
required by the act, agencies report median processing times, not
averages.^13 Working with median data only, it is not statistically
possible to combine results from different agencies to develop broader
generalizations (such as a governmentwide statistic based on all agency
reports, or an agencywide statistic based on separate reports from all
components of the agency).^14 This limitation on aggregating data impedes
the development of broader pictures of FOIA operations, which would be
helpful both for public accountability and for effectively managing agency
FOIA programs. Further, we omitted from our statistical analysis data from
the Department of Agriculture because of the unreliability of data
reported by a major component (the Farm Service Agency, which appeared to
account for about 80 percent of the department's data). Providing annual
report data that are generalizable and accurate is important to meeting
the act's goal of providing visibility into government FOIA operations.
Finally, in the absence of a requirement that data from the annual reports
be summarized or aggregated (a function that the Department of Justice, in
its FOIA oversight role, has performed in the past), the public and the
Congress have no consistent means of obtaining a governmentwide picture of
FOIA processing.

The 25 agencies submitted improvement plans that mostly included goals and
timetables addressing the four areas of improvement emphasized by the
Executive Order. Based on the results of agencies' reviews of their FOIA
operations, the plans also included other improvement activities (such as
improving automation and increasing staff training) that are expected to
contribute to achieving the goals of the Executive Order. Out of 25 plans,
20 provided goals and timetables in all four areas. In some cases,
agencies did not set goals for a given area because they determined that
they were already strong in that area. All agencies with reported backlog
developed plans to reduce backlog, and (with minor exceptions) all
included both measurable goals and milestones. Except for one department,
agencies also generally set milestones for the other areas of improvement
emphasized by the Executive Order (that is, increasing public
dissemination, improving status communications, and increasing public
awareness of FOIA processing); for example, to increase public awareness,
agencies generally planned to ensure that their FOIA reference guides were
comprehensive and up to date. The exception was the Department of the
Treasury, whose review and plan was focused on backlog reduction and
omitted the other three areas of improvement; if the department does not
review these areas and, as appropriate, establish and report on goals and
timetables for them, it will not have assurance that it has taken
appropriate steps to address increasing public dissemination, improving
status communications, and increasing public awareness of FOIA processing.

We suggest that the Congress consider improving the usefulness of the
agency annual FOIA reports by requiring agencies to report statistics in
addition to processing times, including averages. In addition, we are
recommending that Justice provide aggregated statistics and summaries of
the annual reports. Finally, we are making recommendations to the
Departments of Agriculture and the Treasury aimed at improving annual FOIA
reports and agency improvement plans.

We provided drafts of our report for comment to OMB and all 25 agencies
reviewed. All the agencies generally agreed with our findings and
recommendations or had no comment, except for the Department of the
Treasury; Treasury partially disagreed with our assessment and conclusions
regarding its improvement plan and disagreed with our recommendation.
Written comments from the Departments of Agriculture, Justice, the
Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, along with the Agency for International
Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Science
Foundation, are provided in appendixes II through VIII; other comments
were provided orally. In addition, six agencies (OMB, the Office of
Personnel Management, and SSA, and the Departments of the Interior,
Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development) provided technical
comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.

More specifically:

oThe Department of Justice concurred with our assessment and
recommendation and described plans to implement the recommendation.

oThe Department of Agriculture provided additional information on actions
to improve FOIA processing and to ensure that data from the Farm Service
Agency are reliable.

oExcept for Treasury, other agencies providing written comments generally
provided additional information on their FOIA programs or provided
suggestions on the draft.

oIn written and e-mail comments, the Department of the Treasury stated
that it will be evaluating its improvement plan and taking action to
improve its FOIA administration. It indicated a general agreement with the
conclusion that Treasury's plan needs to more thoroughly integrate the
Executive Order, and noted that the plan is a living, dynamic document
that will accommodate changing circumstances. However, the department
partially disagreed with our assessment of its improvement plan,
indicating that we did not take into sufficient consideration activities
that it had been carrying out before the issuance of the Executive Order
(such as improvements to automation). Further, it disagreed with our
recommendation that it review its FOIA operations in certain areas
emphasized by the Executive Order and modify the plan as appropriate to
address these areas. The department considered that its plan's emphasis on
backlog reduction was in accordance with the emphasis placed on it by the
Executive Order and Justice guidance, that its plan went well beyond
discussing backlog reduction, and that actions that were not included in
the plan implemented other elements in the letter and spirit of the
Executive Order.

Although we agree that the Executive Order and Justice guidance placed
great emphasis on backlog reduction, we do not agree that the plan and the
other actions described fully address all the areas emphasized in the
order. For example, although the improvements to automation described by
the department may contribute to (for example) improved communication with
requesters, without goals and milestones tying these automation
improvements to that objective, neither Treasury management nor the public
will be well placed to judge whether the department has succeeded in
achieving the objective. We note, however, that Treasury in its comments
indicates that it does plan to continue to reevaluate its improvement plan
and modify it to accommodate changing circumstances. If future
modifications specifically address external communications, particularly
with requesters, the goal of our recommendation may be achieved.

Background

FOIA establishes a legal right of access to government records and
information, on the basis of the principles of openness and accountability
in government. Before the act (originally enacted in 1966), an individual
seeking access to federal records had faced the burden of establishing a
right to examine them. FOIA established a "right to know" standard for
access, instead of a "need to know," and shifted the burden of proof from
the individual to the government agency seeking to deny access.

FOIA provides the public with access to government information either
through "affirmative agency disclosure"--publishing information in the
Federal Register or on the Internet, or making it available in reading
rooms--or in response to public requests for disclosure. Public requests
for disclosure of records are the best known type of FOIA disclosure. Any
member of the public may request access to information held by federal
agencies, without showing a need or reason for seeking the information.

Not all information held by the government is subject to FOIA. The act
prescribes nine specific categories of information that are exempt from
disclosure: for example, trade secrets and certain privileged commercial
or financial information, certain personnel and medical files, and certain
law enforcement records or information (app. IX provides the complete
list). In denying access to material, agencies may cite these exemptions.
The act requires agencies to notify requesters of the reasons for any
adverse determination (that is, a determination not to provide records)
and grants requesters the right to appeal agency decisions to deny access.

In addition, agencies are required to meet certain time frames for making
key determinations: whether to comply with requests (20 business days from
receipt of the request), responses to appeals of adverse determinations
(20 business days from filing of the appeal), and whether to provide
expedited processing of requests (10 calendar days from receipt of the
request). The Congress did not establish a statutory deadline for making
releasable records available, but instead required agencies to make them
available promptly.

The FOIA Process at Federal Agencies

Although the specific details of processes for handling FOIA requests vary
among agencies, the major steps in handling a request are similar across
the government. Agencies receive requests, usually in writing (although
they may accept requests by telephone or electronically), which can come
from any organization or member of the public. Once received, the request
goes through several phases, which include initial processing, searching
for and retrieving responsive records, preparing responsive records for
release, approving the release of the records, and releasing the records
to the requester. Figure 1 is an overview of the process, from the receipt
of a request to the release of records.

Figure 1: Overview of Generic FOIA Process

During the initial processing phase, a request is logged into the agency's
FOIA system, and a case file is started. The request is then reviewed to
determine its scope, estimate fees, and provide an initial response to the
requester (in general, this simply acknowledges receipt of the request).
After this point, the FOIA staff begins its search to retrieve responsive
records. This step may include searching for records from multiple
locations and program offices. After potentially responsive records are
located, the documents are reviewed to ensure that they are within the
scope of the request.

During the next two phases, the agency ensures that appropriate
information is to be released under the provisions of the act. First, the
agency reviews the responsive records to make any redactions based on the
statutory exemptions. Once the exemption review is complete, the final set
of responsive records is turned over to the FOIA office, which calculates
appropriate fees, if applicable. Before release, the redacted responsive
records are then given a final review, possibly by the agency's general
counsel, and then a response letter is generated, summarizing the agency's
actions regarding the request. Finally, the responsive records are
released to the requester.

Some requests are relatively simple to process, such as requests for
specific pieces of information that the requester sends directly to the
appropriate office. Other requests may require more extensive processing,
depending on their complexity, the volume of information involved, the
need for the agency FOIA office to work with offices that have relevant
subject-matter expertise to find and obtain information, the need for a
FOIA officer to review and redact information in the responsive material,
the need to communicate with the requester about the scope of the request,
and the need to communicate with the requester about the fees that will be
charged for fulfilling the request (or whether fees will be waived).^15

Specific details of agency processes for handling requests vary, depending
on the agency's organizational structure and the complexity of the
requests received. While some agencies centralize processing in one main
office, other agencies have separate FOIA offices for each agency
component and field office. Agencies also vary in how they allow requests
to be made. Depending on the agency, requesters can submit requests by
telephone, fax, letter, or e-mail or through the Web. In addition,
agencies may process requests in two ways, known as "multitrack" and
"single track." Multitrack processing involves dividing requests into two
groups: (1) simple requests requiring relatively minimal review, which are
placed in one processing track, and (2) more voluminous and complex
requests, which are placed in another track. In contrast, single-track
processing does not distinguish between simple and complex requests. With
single-track processing, agencies process all requests on a
first-in/first-out basis. Agencies can also process FOIA requests on an
expedited basis when a requester has shown a compelling need or urgency
for the information.

As agencies process FOIA requests, they generally place them in one of
four possible disposition categories: grants, partial grants, denials, and
"not disclosed for other reasons." These categories are defined as
follows:

oGrants: Agency decisions to disclose all requested records in full.

oPartial grants: Agency decisions to withhold some records in whole or in
part, because such information was determined to fall within one or more
exemptions.

oDenials: Agency decisions not to release any part of the requested
records because all information in the records is determined to be exempt
under one or more statutory exemptions.

oNot disclosed for other reasons: Agency decisions not to release
requested information for any of a variety of reasons other than statutory
exemptions from disclosing records. The categories and definitions of
these "other" reasons for nondisclosure are shown in table 1.

Table 1: "Other" Reasons for Nondisclosure

Category                  Definition                                       
No records                The agency searched and found no record          
                             responsive to the request.                       
Referrals                 The agency referred records responsive to the    
                             request to another agency.                       
Request withdrawn         The requester withdrew the request.              
Fee-related reasons       The requester refused to commit to pay fees (or  
                             other reasons related to fees).                  
Records not reasonably    The requester did not describe the records       
described                 sought with sufficient specificity to allow them 
                             to be located with a reasonable amount of        
                             effort.                                          
Not a proper FOIA request The request was not a FOIA request for one of    
                             several procedural reasons.                      
Not an agency record      The requested record was not within the agency's 
                             control.                                         
Duplicate request         The request was submitted more than once by the  
                             same requester.                                  

Source: Department of Justice.

When a FOIA request is denied in full or in part, or the requested records
are not disclosed for other reasons, the requester is entitled to be told
the reason for the denial, to appeal the denial, and to challenge it in
court.

The Privacy Act Also Provides Individuals with Access Rights

In addition to FOIA, the Privacy Act of 1974^16 includes provisions
granting individuals the right to gain access to and correct information
about themselves held by federal agencies. Thus the Privacy Act serves as
a second major legal basis, in addition to FOIA, for the public to use in
obtaining government information. The Privacy Act also places limitations
on agencies' collection, disclosure, and use of personal information.

Although the two laws differ in scope, procedures in both FOIA and the
Privacy Act permit individuals to seek access to records about
themselves--known as "first-party" access. Depending on the individual
circumstances, one law may allow broader access or more extensive
procedural rights than the other, or access may be denied under one act
and allowed under the other. Consequently, the Department of Justice's
Office of Information and Privacy issued guidance that it is "good policy
for agencies to treat all first-party access requests as FOIA requests (as
well as possibly Privacy Act requests), regardless of whether the FOIA is
cited in a requester's letter." This guidance was intended to help ensure
that requesters receive the fullest possible response to their inquiries,
regardless of which law they cite.

In addition, Justice guidance for the annual FOIA report directs agencies
to include Privacy Act requests (that is, first-party requests) in the
statistics reported. According to the guidance, "A Privacy Act request is
a request for records concerning oneself; such requests are also treated
as FOIA requests. (All requests for access to records, regardless of which
law is cited by the requester, are included in this report.)"

Although FOIA and the Privacy Act can both apply to first-party requests,
these may not always be processed in the same way as described earlier for
FOIA requests. In some cases, little review and redaction (see fig. 1) is
required, such as, for example, a request for one's own Social Security
benefits records. In contrast, various degrees of review and redaction
could be required for other types of first-party requests: for example,
files on security background checks would need review and redaction before
being provided to the person who was the subject of the investigation.

Roles of OMB and Justice in FOIA Implementation

OMB and the Department of Justice both have roles in the implementation of
FOIA. Under various statutes, including the Paperwork Reduction Act,^17
OMB exercises broad authority for coordinating and administering various
aspects of governmentwide information policy. FOIA specifically requires
OMB to issue guidelines to "provide for a uniform schedule of fees for all
agencies."^18 OMB issued this guidance in April 1987.^19

The Department of Justice oversees agencies' compliance with FOIA and is
the primary source of policy guidance for agencies. Specifically,
Justice's requirements under the act are to

omake agencies' annual FOIA reports available through a single electronic
access point and notify the Congress as to their availability;

oin consultation with OMB, develop guidelines for the required annual
agency reports, so that all reports use common terminology and follow a
similar format; and

osubmit an annual report on FOIA litigation and the efforts undertaken by
Justice to encourage agency compliance.

Within the Department of Justice, the Office of Information and Privacy
has lead responsibility for providing guidance and support to federal
agencies on FOIA issues. This office first issued guidelines for agency
preparation and submission of annual reports in the spring of 1997. It
also periodically issues additional guidance on annual reports as well as
on compliance, provides training, and maintains a counselors service to
provide expert, one-on-one assistance to agency FOIA staff. Further, the
Office of Information and Privacy also makes a variety of FOIA and Privacy
Act resources available to agencies and the public via the Justice Web
site and on-line bulletins (available at [64]w 
ww.usdoj.gov/oip/index.html).

Annual FOIA Reports Were Established by 1996 Amendments

In 1996, the Congress amended FOIA to provide for public access to
information in an electronic format (among other purposes). These
amendments, referred to as e-FOIA, also required that agencies submit a
report to the Attorney General on or before February 1 of each year that
covers the preceding fiscal year and includes information about agencies'
FOIA operations.^20 The following are examples of information that is to
be included in these reports:

onumber of requests received, processed, and pending;

omedian number of days taken by the agency to process different types of
requests;

odeterminations made by the agency not to disclose information and the
reasons for not disclosing the information;

odisposition of administrative appeals by requesters;

oinformation on the costs associated with handling of FOIA requests; and

ofull-time-equivalent staffing information.

In addition to providing their annual reports to the Attorney General,
agencies are to make them available to the public in electronic form. The
Attorney General is required to make all agency reports available online
at a single electronic access point and report to the Congress no later
than April 1 of each year that these reports are available in electronic
form. (This electronic access point is [65]w  ww.usdoj.gov/oip/04_6.html.)

In 2001, in response to a congressional request, we prepared the first in
a series of reports on the implementation of the 1996 amendments to FOIA,
starting from fiscal year 1999.^21 In these reviews, we examined the
contents of the annual reports for 25 major agencies (shown in table
2).^22 They include the 24 major agencies covered by the Chief Financial
Officers Act, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency and, until 2003,
the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In 2003, the creation of
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which incorporated FEMA, led to
a shift in some FOIA requests from agencies affected by the creation of
the new department, but the same major component entities are reflected in
all the years reviewed.

Table 2: Agencies Reviewed

                                        

                          Agency                             Abbreviation     
Agency for International Development                  AID                  
Central Intelligence Agency                           CIA                  
Department of Agriculture ^a                          USDA                 
Department of Commerce                                DOC                  
Department of Defense                                 DOD                  
Department of Education                               ED                   
Department of Energy                                  DOE                  
Department of Health and Human Services               HHS                  
Department of Homeland Security ^b                    DHS                  
Federal Emergency Management Agency ^b                FEMA                 
Department of Housing and Urban Development           HUD                  
Department of Interior                                DOI                  
Department of Justice                                 DOJ                  
Department of Labor                                   DOL                  
Department of State                                   State                
Department of the Treasury                            Treas                
Department of Transportation                          DOT                  
Department of Veterans Affairs                        VA                   
Environmental Protection Agency                       EPA                  
General Services Administration                       GSA                  
National Aeronautics and Space Administration         NASA                 
National Science Foundation                           NSF                  
Nuclear Regulatory Commission                         NRC                  
Office of Personnel Management                        OPM                  
Small Business Administration                         SBA                  
Social Security Administration                        SSA                  

Source: GAO.

^aUSDA was not included in our statistical analysis for this report
because data from one of its major components were found to be unreliable.

^bFEMA information was reported separately in fiscal year 2002. In fiscal
years 2003, 2004, and 2005, FEMA was part of DHS.

Our previous reports included descriptions of the status of reported FOIA
implementation, including any trends revealed by comparison with earlier
years. We noted general increases in requests received and processed, as
well as growing numbers of pending requests carried over from year to
year.

In addition, our 2001 report disclosed that data quality issues limited
the usefulness of agencies' annual FOIA reports and that agencies had not
provided online access to all the information required by the act as
amended in 1996. We therefore recommended that the Attorney General direct
the Department of Justice to improve the reliability of data in the
agencies' annual reports by providing guidance addressing the data quality
issues we identified and by reviewing agencies' report data for
completeness and consistency. We further recommended that the Attorney
General direct the department to enhance the public's access to government
records and information by encouraging agencies to make all required
materials available electronically. In response, the Department of Justice
issued supplemental guidance, addressed reporting requirements in its
training programs, and continued reviewing agencies' annual reports for
data quality. Justice also worked with agencies to improve the quality of
data in FOIA annual reports.

Executive Order Required Agencies to Take Several Actions to Improve FOIA
Operations

On December 14, 2005, the President issued an Executive Order setting
forth a policy of citizen-centered and results-oriented FOIA
administration.^23 Briefly, FOIA requesters are to receive courteous and
appropriate services, including ways to learn about the status of their
requests and the agency's response, and agencies are to provide ways for
requesters and the public to learn about the FOIA process and publicly
available agency records (such as those on Web sites). In addition, agency
FOIA operations are to be results oriented: agencies are to process
requests efficiently, achieve measurable improvements in FOIA processing,
and reform programs that do not produce appropriate results.

To carry out this policy, the order required, among other things, that
agency heads designate Chief FOIA Officers to oversee their FOIA programs,
and that agencies establish Requester Service Centers and Public Liaisons
to ensure appropriate communication with requesters. The Chief FOIA
Officers were directed to conduct reviews of the agencies' FOIA operations
and develop improvement plans to ensure that FOIA administration was in
accordance with applicable law as well as with the policy set forth in the
order. By June 2006, agencies were to submit reports that included the
results of their reviews and copies of their improvement plans. The order
also instructed the Attorney General to issue guidance on implementation
of the order's requirements for agencies to conduct reviews and develop
plans. Finally, the order instructed agencies to report on their progress
in implementing their plans and meeting milestones as part of their annual
reports for fiscal years 2006 and 2007, and required agencies to account
for any milestones missed.

In April 2006, the Department of Justice posted guidance on implementation
of the order's requirements for FOIA reviews and improvement plans.^24
This guidance suggested a number of areas of FOIA administration that
agencies might consider in conducting their reviews and developing
improvement plans. (Examples of some of these areas are automated tracking
capabilities, automated processing, receiving/responding to requests
electronically, forms of communication with requesters, and systems for
handling referrals to other agencies.) To encourage consistency, the
guidance also included a template for agencies to use to structure the
plans and to report on their reviews and plans.^25 The improvement plans
are posted on the Justice Web site at [66]w 
ww.usdoj.gov/oip/agency_improvement.html.

In a July 2006 testimony, we provided preliminary results of our analyses
of the improvement plans for the 25 agencies in our review that were
submitted as of the end of June; in our testimony we focused on how the
plans addressed reducing or eliminating backlog.^26 We testified that a
substantial number of plans did not include measurable goals and
timetables that would allow agencies to measure and evaluate the success
of their plans. Several of the plans were revised in light of our
testimony, as well as in response to feedback to agencies from the
Department of Justice in its FOIA oversight role.

Status of FOIA Processing Appears Similar to Previous Years, but
Limitations in Annual Report Data Present Challenges

The data reported by 24 major agencies in annual FOIA reports from 2002 to
2005 reveal a number of general trends. (Data from USDA, which were
reported in our July 2006 testimony, are omitted in what follows, because
we determined that data from a major USDA component were not reliable.)
For example, the public continued to submit more requests for information
from the federal government through FOIA, but many agencies, despite
increasing the numbers of requests processed, did not keep pace with this
increased volume. As a result, the number of pending requests carried over
from year to year has been steadily increasing. However, our ability to
make generalizations about processing time is limited by the type of
statistic reported (that is, the median). Taking steps to improve the
accuracy and form of annual report data could provide more insight into
FOIA processing.

Not All Data from USDA's Farm Service Agency Are Reliable, but Its
Improvement Plan Provides Opportunity to Address This Weakness

We omitted data from USDA's annual FOIA report because we determined that
not all these data were reliable. Although some USDA components expressed
confidence in their data, one component, the Farm Service Agency, did not.
According to this agency's FOIA Officer, portions of the agency's data in
annual reports were not accurate or complete. This is a significant
deficiency, because the Farm Service Agency reportedly processes over 80
percent of the department's total FOIA requests. Currently, FOIA
processing for the Farm Service Agency is highly decentralized, taking
place in staff offices in Washington, D.C., and Kansas City, 50 state
offices, and about 2,350 county offices. The agency FOIA officer told us
that she questioned the completeness and accuracy of data supplied by the
county offices. This official stated that some of the field office data
supplied for the annual report were clearly wrong, leading her to question
the systems used to record workload data at field offices and the field
office staff's understanding of FOIA requirements. She attributed this
condition to the agency's decentralized organization and to lack of
management attention, resources, and training. Lacking accurate data
hinders the Farm Service Agency from effectively monitoring and managing
its FOIA program.

The Executive Order's requirement to develop an improvement plan provides
an opportunity for the Farm Service Agency to address its data reliability
problems. More specifically, Justice's guidance on implementing the
Executive Order refers to the need for agencies to explore improvements in
their monitoring and tracking systems and staff training. USDA has
developed an improvement plan that includes activities to improve FOIA
processing at the Farm Service Agency that are relevant to the issues
raised by the Farm Service Agency's FOIA Officer, including both
automation and training. The plan sets goals for ensuring that all agency
employees who process or retrieve responsive records are trained in the
necessary FOIA duties, as well as for determining the type of automated
tracking to be implemented. According to the plan, an electronic tracking
system is needed to track requests, handle public inquiries regarding
request status, and prepare a more accurate annual FOIA report. In
addition, the Farm Service Agency plans to determine the benefit of
increased centralization of FOIA request processing.

However, the plan does not directly address improvements to data
reliability. If USDA does not also plan for activities, measures, and
milestones to improve data reliability, it increases the risk that the
Farm Service Agency will not produce reliable FOIA statistics, which are
important for program oversight and meeting the act's goal of providing
visibility into government FOIA operations.

Except for SSA, Increases in Requests Received and Processed Are Generally
Slowing

The numbers of FOIA requests received and processed continue to rise, but
except for one case--SSA--the rate of increase has flattened in recent
years. For SSA, we present statistics separately because the agency
reported an additional 16 million requests in 2005, dwarfing those for all
other agencies combined, which together total about 2.6 million. SSA
attributed this rise to an improvement in its method of counting requests
and stated that in previous years, these requests were undercounted.
Further, all but about 38,000 of SSA's over 17 million requests are simple
requests for personal information by or on behalf of individuals.

Figure 2 shows total requests reported governmentwide for fiscal years
2002 through 2005, with SSA's share shown separately.^27 This figure shows
the magnitude of SSA's contribution to the whole FOIA picture, as well as
the scale of the jump from 2004 to 2005.

Figure 2: Total FOIA Requests with SSA Shown Separately, Fiscal Years
2002-2005

Figure 3 presents statistics omitting SSA on a scale that allows a clearer
view of the rate of increase in FOIA requests received and processed in
the rest of the government. As this figure shows, when SSA's numbers are
excluded, the rate of increase is modest and has been flattening: For the
whole period (fiscal years 2002 to 2005), requests received increased by
about 29 percent, and requests processed increased by about 27 percent.
Most of this rise occurred from fiscal years 2002 to 2003: about 28
percent for requests received, and about 27 percent for requests
processed. In contrast, from fiscal year 2004 to 2005, the rise was much
less: about 3 percent for requests received, and about 2 percent for
requests processed.

Figure 3: Total FOIA Requests and FOIA Requests Processed, Omitting SSA,
Fiscal Years 2002-2005

According to SSA, the increases that the agency reported in fiscal year
2005 can be attributed to an improvement in its method of counting a
category of requests it calls "simple requests handled by non-FOIA staff."
From fiscal year 2002 to 2005, SSA's FOIA reports have consistently shown
significant growth in this category, which has accounted for the major
portion of all SSA requests reported (see table 3). In each of these
years, SSA has attributed the increases in this category largely to better
reporting, as well as actual increases in requests.

Table 3: Comparison of SSA's Simple Requests Handled by Non-FOIA Staff to
Totals, Fiscal Years 2002 to 2005

Fiscal Total requests Total requests       Simple requests   Percentage of 
year         received      processed   handled by non-FOIA total processed 
                                                        staff                 
2005       17,257,886     17,262,315            17,223,713            99.8 
2004        1,453,619      1,450,493             1,270,512            87.6 
2003          705,280        704,941               678,849            96.3 
2002          268,488        292,884               245,877            84.0 

Sources: SSA FOIA reports (self-reported data), GAO analysis.

SSA describes requests in this category as typically being requests by
individuals for access to their own records, as well as requests in which
individuals consent for SSA to supply information about themselves to
third parties (such as insurance and mortgage companies) so that they can
receive housing assistance, mortgages, disability insurance, and so on.^28
According to SSA's FOIA report, these requests are handled by personnel in
about 1,500 locations in SSA, including field and district offices and
teleservice centers.^29 Such requests are almost always granted,^30
according to SSA, and most receive immediate responses. SSA has stated
that it does not keep processing statistics (such as median days to
process) on these requests, which it reports separately from other FOIA
requests (for which processing statistics are kept). However, officials
say that these are typically processed in a day or less.

According to SSA officials, they included information on these requests in
their annual reports because Justice guidance instructs agencies to treat
Privacy Act requests (requests for records concerning oneself) as FOIA
requests and report them in their annual reports.^31 In addition, SSA
officials said that their automated systems make it straightforward to
capture and report on these simple requests. According to SSA, in fiscal
year 2005, the agency began to use automated systems to capture the
numbers of requests processed by non-FOIA staff, generating statistics
automatically as requests were processed; the result, according to SSA, is
a much more accurate count.

Besides SSA, agencies reporting large numbers of requests received were
the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security,
Justice, the Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as shown in table 4.^32 The
rest of the agencies combined account for only about 5 percent of the
total requests received (if SSA's simple requests handled by non-FOIA
staff are excluded). Table 4 presents, in descending order of request
totals, the numbers of requests received and percentages of the total
(calculated with and without SSA's statistics on simple requests handled
by non-FOIA staff).

Table 4: Requests Received, Fiscal Year 2005

Agency                      Total requests   Percentage of   Percentage of 
                                     received total including total including 
                                                   SSA line 1      SSA line 2 
SSA (all)                       17,257,886           87.00              -- 
SSA (excluding simple               38,602              --            1.48 
requests handled by                                                        
non-FOIA staff)                                                            
VA                               1,914,395            9.65           73.17 
HHS                                222,372            1.12            8.50 
DHS                                163,016            0.82            6.23 
DOD                                 81,304            0.41            3.11 
Treas                               53,330            0.27            2.04 
DOJ                                 52,010            0.26            1.99 
DOL                                 23,505            0.12            0.90 
EPA                                 12,201            0.06            0.47 
OPM                                 12,085            0.06            0.46 
DOT                                  9,597            0.05            0.37 
DOI                                  6,749            0.03            0.26 
State                                4,602            0.02            0.18 
HUD                                  4,227            0.02            0.16 
SBA                                  3,739            0.02            0.14 
DOE                                  3,729            0.02            0.14 
CIA                                  2,935            0.01            0.11 
ED                                   2,416            0.01            0.09 
DOC                                  1,804            0.01            0.07 
GSA                                  1,416            0.01            0.05 
NASA                                 1,229            0.01            0.05 
NRC                                    371            0.00            0.01 
AID                                    369            0.00            0.01 
NSF                                    273            0.00            0.01 
Total including SSA line 1      19,835,560              --              -- 
Total including SSA line 2       2,616,276              --              -- 

Source: FOIA annual reports for 2005 (self-reported data).

Note: Abbreviations are as in table 2. USDA data have been omitted, as
data from a major USDA component were determined to be unreliable.

Most Requests Are Granted in Full

Most FOIA requests in 2005 were granted in full, with relatively few being
partially granted, denied, or not disclosed for other reasons (statistics
are shown in table 5). This generalization holds with or without SSA's
inclusion. The percentage of requests granted in full was about 87
percent, which is about the same as in previous years. However, if SSA's
numbers are included, the proportion of grants dominates the other
categories--raising this number from 87 percent of the total to 98
percent. This is to be expected, since SSA reports that it grants the
great majority of its simple requests handled by non-FOIA staff, which
make up the bulk of SSA's statistics.

Table 5: Disposition of Processed Requests for Fiscal Year 2005

                       Statistics            Statistics 
                        excluding             including 
                            SSA^a                   SSA 
Disposition             Number Percentage                Number Percentage 
Full grants          2,206,515       87.1            19,466,907       98.3 
Partial grants         102,079        4.0               102,354        0.5 
Denial                  19,864        0.8                20,318        0.1 
Not disclosed for      204,491        8.1               205,685        1.0 
other reasons                                                              
Total                2,532,949                       19,795,264            

Source: FOIA annual reports for 2005 (self-reported data).

Note: USDA data have been omitted, as data from a major USDA component
were determined to be unreliable. Percentages do not add up to 100 percent
because of rounding.

^a We exclude all SSA statistics for this comparison rather than omitting
only simple requests handled by non-FOIA staff, because SSA's report does
not break out this category in its statistics on disposition.

Three of the seven agencies that handled the largest numbers of requests
(HHS, SSA, and VA; see table 4) also granted the largest percentages of
requests in full, as shown in figure 4. Figure 4 shows, by agency, the
disposition of requests processed: that is, whether granted in full,
partially granted, denied, or "not disclosed for other reasons" (see table
1 for a list of these reasons).

Figure 4: Disposition of Processed Requests, by Agency (Fiscal Year 2005)

Note: Abbreviations are shown in table 2. USDA data have been omitted, as
data from a major USDA component were determined to be unreliable.

As the figure shows, the numbers of fully granted requests varied widely
among agencies in fiscal year 2005. Six agencies made full grants of
requested records in over 80 percent of the cases they processed (besides
the three already mentioned, these include Energy, OPM, and SBA).  In
contrast, 13 of 24 made full grants of requested records in less than 40
percent of their cases, including 3 agencies (CIA, NSF, and State) that
made full grants in less than 20 percent of cases processed.

This variance among agencies in the disposition of requests has been
evident in prior years as well.^33 In many cases, the variance can be
accounted for by the types of requests that different agencies process.
For example, as discussed earlier, SSA grants a very high proportion of
requests because they are requests for personal information about
individuals that are routinely made available to or for the individuals
concerned. Similarly, VA routinely makes medical records available to
individual veterans, and HHS also handles large numbers of Privacy Act
requests. Such requests are generally granted in full. Other agencies, on
the other hand, receive numerous requests whose responses must routinely
be redacted. For example, NSF reported in its annual report that most of
its requests (an estimated 90 percent) are for copies of funded grant
proposals. The responsive documents are routinely redacted to remove
personal information on individual principal investigators (such as
salaries, home addresses, and so on), which results in high numbers of
"partial grants" compared to "full grants."

Processing Times Vary, but Broad Generalizations Are Limited

For 2005, the reported time required to process requests (by track) varied
considerably among agencies. Table 6 presents data on median processing
times for fiscal year 2005. For agencies that reported processing times by
component rather than for the agency as a whole, the table indicates the
range of median times reported by the agency's components.

Table 6: Median Days to Process Requests for Fiscal Year 2005, by Track

                                        

             Type of request processing track  
    Agency                              Simple   Complex   Single   Expedited 
AID                                      --        --       55          34 
CIA                                       7        68       --          -- 
DHS                                   16-61     3-242       --        2-45 
DOC                                      12        40       --           8 
DOD                                      16        85       --          -- 
DOE                                   5-106    10-170       --        1-12 
DOI                                    2-43     28-89       --        1-15 
DOJ                                   0-139    12-863       --       2-185 
DOL                                    6-30     14-60       --        2-18 
DOT                                    1-30    20-134       --        5-30 
ED                                       35        66       --          24 
EPA                                   13-32     4-166       --       8-109 
GSA                                      --        14       --          -- 
HHS                                   10-26    60-370    5-173      14-158 
HUD                                   21-65    35-160       --        9-70 
NASA                                     19        49       --          15 
NRC                                      12        75       --          20 
NSF                                      --        --       14          -- 
OPM                                      --        --       14           1 
SBA                                      --        --        7          -- 
SSA                                      15        39       10          17 
State                                    14       142       --         136 
Treas                                  2-86     3-251       --           1 
VA                                       --      1-60       --        1-10 

Source: FOIA annual reports for fiscal year 2005 (self-reported data).

Note: For agencies that reported processing times by component, the table
indicates the range of reported component median times. A dash indicates
that the agency did not report any median time for a given track in a
given year. USDA data have been omitted, as data from a major USDA
component were determined to be unreliable.

As the table shows, seven agencies had components that reported processing
simple requests in less than 10 days (these components are parts of the
CIA, Energy, the Interior, Justice, Labor, Transportation, and the
Treasury); for each of these agencies, the lower value of the reported
ranges is less than 10. On the other hand, median time to process simple
requests is relatively long at some organizations (for example, components
of Energy and Justice, as shown by median ranges whose upper end values
are greater than 100 days).

For complex requests, the picture is similarly mixed. Components of four
agencies (EPA, DHS, the Treasury, and VA) reported processing complex
requests quickly--with a median of less than 10 days. In contrast, other
components of several agencies (DHS, Energy, EPA, HHS, HUD, Justice,
State, Transportation, and the Treasury) reported relatively long median
times to process complex requests, with median days greater than 100.

Six agencies (AID, HHS, NSF, OPM, SBA, and SSA) reported using
single-track processing. The median processing times for single-track
processing varied from 5 days (at an HHS component) to 173 days (at
another HHS component).

The changes from fiscal year 2004 to 2005 also vary. For agencies that
reported agencywide figures, table 7 shows how many showed increased or
decreased median processing times. Table 8 shows these numbers for the
components that were reported separately.

Table 7: Changes in Median Processing Times Reported by Agencies for
Different Processing Tracks

           Agencies   Agencies          Agencies  
             with       with              with    
           increased  decreased         unchanged 
            median     median            median   
             times      times             times   
Processing Number of     Number Percent           Number Percent  Number Percent 
  track     agencies                                                             
               using                                                             
                this                                                             
               track                                                             
Simple             7          3    42.9                3    42.9       1    14.3 
Complex            8          5    62.5                2    25.0       1    12.5 
Single             5          3    60.0                2    40.0       0     0.0 
Expedited          5          2    40.0                3    60.0       0     0.0 

Sources: Annual FOIA reports, GAO analysis.

Table 8: Changes in Median Processing Times Reported by Components for
Different Processing Tracks

Processing  Number of  Components         Components        Components 
track      components        with               with              with 
           using this   increased          decreased         unchanged 
                track      median             median            median 
                            times              times             times 
                           Number Percent            Number    Percent  Number Percent 
Simple            107          48    44.9                41       38.3      18    16.8 
Complex            94          49    52.1                39       41.5       6     6.4 
Single              9           3    33.3                 2       22.2       4    44.4 
Expedited          38          22    57.9                11       28.9       5    13.2 

Sources: Annual FOIA reports, GAO analysis.

Note: A total of 204 components are listed in the FOIA reports. Not all
the components processed requests or used all the tracks.

In general, these tables show that no trend emerges across tracks and
types of reporting, and the numbers of agencies and components involved
vary from track to track. The picture that emerges is of great variation
in processing times according to circumstances.

To allow more insight into the variations in median processing times, we
provide in appendix X tables of median processing times as reported by
agencies and components in the annual FOIA reports in fiscal years 2004
and 2005. This attachment also includes information on the number of
requests reported by the agencies and components, which provides context
for assessing the median times reported.

Our ability to make further generalizations about FOIA processing times is
limited by the fact that, as required by the act, agencies report median
processing times only and not, for example, arithmetic means (the usual
meaning of "average" in everyday language). To find an arithmetic mean,
one adds all the members of a list of numbers and divides the result by
the number of items in the list. To find the median, one arranges all the
values in the list from lowest to highest and finds the middle one (or the
average of the middle two if there is no one middle number). Thus,
although using medians provides representative numbers that are not skewed
by a few outliers, they cannot be summed. Deriving a median for two sets
of numbers, for example, requires knowing all numbers in both sets. Only
the source data for the medians can be used to derive a new median, not
the medians themselves.

As a result, with only medians it is not statistically possible to combine
results from different agencies to develop broader generalizations, such
as a governmentwide statistic based on all agency reports, statistics from
sets of comparable agencies, or an agencywide statistic based on separate
reports from all components of the agency.

In rewriting the FOIA reporting requirements in 1996, legislators declared
an interest in making them "more useful to the public and to the Congress,
and [making] the information in them more accessible."^34 However, the
limitation on aggregating data imposed by the use of medians alone impedes
the development of broader pictures of FOIA operations. A more complete
picture would be given by the inclusion of other statistics based on the
same data that are used to derive medians, such as means and ranges.
Providing means along with the median would allow more generalizations to
be drawn, and providing ranges would complete the picture by adding
information on the outliers in agency statistics. More complete
information would be useful for public accountability and for effectively
managing agency FOIA programs, as well as for meeting the act's goal of
providing visibility into government FOIA operations.

Agency Pending Cases Continue to Increase

In addition to the governmentwide increase in number of requests
processed, many agencies (10 of 24) also reported that their numbers of
pending cases--requests carried over from one year to the next--have
increased since 2002.^35 In 2002, pending requests governmentwide were
reported to number about 138,000, whereas in 2005, about 200,000--45
percent more--were reported. (In addition, the rate of increase grew in
fiscal year 2005, rising 24 percent from fiscal year 2004, compared to 13
percent from 2003 to 2004.) Figure 5 shows these results, illustrating the
accelerating rate at which pending cases have been increasing.

These statistics include pending cases reported by SSA, because SSA's
pending cases do not include simple requests handled by non-FOIA staff
(for which SSA does not track pending cases). As the figure shows, these
pending cases do not change the governmentwide picture significantly.

Figure 5: Total FOIA Requests Pending at End of Year, 2002-2005

Trends for individual agencies show mixed progress in reducing the number
of pending requests reported from 2002 to 2005--some agencies have
decreased numbers of pending cases, while others' numbers have increased.
Figure 6 shows processing rates at the 24 agencies (that is, the number of
requests that an agency processes relative to the number it receives).
Eight of the 24 agencies (AID, DHS, the Interior, Education, HHS, HUD,
NSF, and OPM) reported processing fewer requests than they received each
year for fiscal years 2003, 2004, and 2005; 8 additional agencies
processed less than they received in 2 of these 3 years (Defense, Justice,
Transportation, GSA, NASA, NRC, SSA, and VA).

In contrast, two agencies (CIA and Energy) had processing rates above 100
percent in all 3 years, meaning that each made continued progress in
reducing their numbers of pending cases. Fourteen additional agencies were
able to make at least a small reduction in their numbers of pending
requests in 1 or more years between fiscal years 2003 and 2005.

Figure 6: Agency Processing Rate for 25 Agencies

Notes: Abbreviations are as in table 2.

The agency processing rate is defined as the number of requests processed
in a given year compared with the requests received, expressed as a
percentage.

In 2002, FEMA data were used, and for 2003, 2004, and 2005, DHS data were
used.

No Regular Mechanism Is in Place for Aggregating Annual Report Data

Legislators noted in 1996 that the FOIA reporting requirements were
rewritten "to make them more useful to the public and to the Congress, and
to make the information in them more accessible." The Congress also gave
the Department of Justice the responsibility to provide policy guidance
and oversee agencies' compliance with FOIA.

In its oversight and guidance role, Justice's Office of Information and
Privacy (OIP) created summaries of the annual FOIA reports and made these
available through its FOIA Post Web page (
www.usdoj.gov/oip/foiapost/mainpage.htm ). In 2003, Justice described
its summary as "a major guidance tool."^36 It pointed out that although it
was not required to do so under the law, the office had initiated the
practice of compiling aggregate summaries of all agencies' annual FOIA
report data as soon as these were filed by all agencies. These summaries
did not contain aggregated statistical tables, but they did provide prose
descriptions that included statistics on major governmentwide results.
However, the most recent of these summaries is for fiscal year 2003.^37
According to the Acting Director of OIP, she did not know why such
summaries had not been made available since then. According to this
official, internally the agency found the summaries useful and was
considering making them available again. She also stated that these
summaries gave a good overall picture of governmentwide processing.

Aggregating and summarizing the information in the annual reports serves
to maximize their usefulness and accessibility, in accordance with
congressional intent, as well as potentially providing Justice with
insight into FOIA implementation governmentwide and valuable benchmarks
for use in overseeing the FOIA program. Such information would also be
valuable for others interested in gauging governmentwide performance. The
absence of such summaries reduces the ability of the public and the
Congress to consistently obtain a governmentwide picture of FOIA
processing.

Agency Improvement Plans Generally Included Areas of Improvement
Emphasized by the Executive Order

As required by the Executive Order, all the 25 agencies submitted
improvement plans based on the results of reviews of their respective FOIA
operations, as well as on the areas emphasized by the order. The plans
generally addressed these four areas, with 20 of 25 plans addressing all
four. In particular, for all but 2 agencies with reported backlog, plans
included both measurable goals and timetables for backlog reduction.
Further, to increase reliance on dissemination, improve communications on
the status of requests, and increase public awareness of FOIA processing,
agencies generally set milestones to accomplish activities promoting these
aims. In some cases, agencies did not set goals for a given area because
they determined that they were already strong in that area.

All Agencies Addressed Reducing Backlog, and Most Set Measurable Goals and
Milestones

The Executive Order states that improvement plans shall include "specific
activities that the agency will implement to eliminate or reduce the
agency's FOIA backlog, including (as applicable) changes that will make
the processing of FOIA requests more streamlined and effective." It
further states that plans were to include "concrete milestones, with
specific timetables and outcomes to be achieved," to allow the plan's
success to be measured and evaluated. In addition, the Justice guidance
suggested a number of process improvement areas for agencies to consider,
such as receiving or responding to requests electronically, automated FOIA
processing, automated tracking capabilities, and multitrack processing. It
also gave agencies considerable leeway in choosing "means of measurement
of success" for improving timeliness and thus reducing backlog.^38

All agency plans discussed avoiding or reducing backlog, and most (22 out
of 25) established measurable goals and timetables for this area of focus.
One agency, SBA, reported that it had no backlog, so it set no goals. A
second agency, NSF, set no specific numerical goals for backlog reduction,
but it had minimal backlog (in fiscal year 2005, NSF reported 273 requests
received and 17 pending at the end of the reporting period),^39 and its
median processing time in fiscal year 2005 was 14.26 days.^40 Its plan
includes activities to increase efficiency (such as improving its ability
to process requests electronically and investigating the acquisition of an
improved automated tracking system) and to monitor and analyze backlogged
requests to determine whether systemic changes are warranted in its
processes. Given NSF's minimal backlog and other improvement activities
planned, the treatment of backlog reduction in its plan seems reasonable.
A third agency, HUD, set a measurable goal for reducing backlog, but did
not include a date by which it planned to achieve it. However, it achieved
this goal, according to agency officials, by November 2006.^41

The goals chosen by the 22 remaining agencies varied considerably (which
is consistent with the flexibility in choosing measures that Justice
provided in its implementation guidance). Some agencies linked backlog
reduction to various different measures. For example, EPA's goal was to
reduce its response backlog to less than 10 percent of the number of new
FOIA requests received each year. Energy set a goal of achieving a 50
percent reduction by June 2007 in the number of pending FOIA cases that
were over 1 year old. NRC chose to focus on improving processing times,
setting percentage goals for completion of different types of requests
(for example, completing 75 percent of simple requests within 20 days).
Labor's plan sets goals that aim for larger percentages of reduction for
the oldest categories of pending requests (75 percent reduction for the
oldest, 50 percent reduction for the next oldest, and so on). A number of
agencies included goals to close their oldest 5 to 10 requests (Justice,
the Treasury, Education, Commerce, Defense, GSA, NASA, SSA, and VA).
According to the Attorney General's report to the President, in
concentrating on their oldest requests, many agencies followed Justice's
lead.^42

OPM and DHS plan to eliminate their backlogs, Transportation is planning
to substantially reduce previous fiscal year backlogs, and several
agencies chose goals based on a percentage of reduction of existing
backlog (for example, CIA, Commerce, Education, Defense, the Interior,
Justice, SSA, the Treasury, and USDA). Some agencies also described plans
to perform analyses that would measure their backlogs so that they could
then establish the necessary baselines against which to measure progress.
For example, Labor's plan includes activities to monitor and determine the
department's oldest pending requests. The plan states that Labor will use
as its baseline the number of requests that it identifies as pending for
various lengths of time as of December 31, 2006. Similarly, Defense's plan
included activities to establish backlog levels and use these as the basis
for its objective of reducing backlog by 10 percent annually.

In addition to setting backlog targets, agencies also describe activities
that contribute to reducing backlog. For example, the Treasury plan, which
states that backlog reduction is the main challenge facing the department
and the focus of its plan, includes such activities (with associated
milestones) as reengineering its multitrack FOIA process, monitoring
monthly reports, and establishing a FOIA council.

The agency plans thus provide a variety of activities and measures of
improvement that should permit agency heads, the Congress, and the public
to assess the agencies' success in implementing their plans to reduce
backlog.

Most Agencies Plan to Increase Public Dissemination of Records through Web
Sites

The Executive Order calls for "increased reliance on the dissemination of
records that can be made available to the public" without the necessity of
a FOIA request, such as through posting on Web sites. In its guidance,
Justice notes that agencies are required by FOIA to post frequently
requested records, policy statements, staff manuals and instructions to
staff, and final agency opinions. It encourages agencies not only to
review their activities to meet this requirement, but also to make other
public information available that might reduce the need to make FOIA
requests. It also suggests that agencies consider improving FOIA Web sites
to ensure that they are user friendly and up to date.

Agency plans generally established goals and timetables for increasing
reliance on public dissemination of records, including through Web sites.
Of 25 agencies, 24 included plans to revise agency Web sites and add
information to them, and 12 of these are making additional efforts to
ensure that frequently requested documents are posted on their Web sites.
For example, Defense is planning to increase the number of its components
that have Web sites as well as posting frequently requested documents.
Interior is planning to facilitate the posting of frequently requested
documents by using scanning and redaction equipment to make electronic
versions readily available.

Agencies planned other related activities, such as making posted documents
easier to find, improving navigation, and adding other helpful
information. For example, besides reviewing its Web site to verify and add
links, AID plans to establish an "information/searching decision tree" to
assist Web site visitors by directing them to agency public affairs staff
who may be able to locate information and avoid the need for visitors to
file FOIA requests. Besides adding frequently requested documents, CIA
plans to improve navigation and review its site quarterly. HUD plans
activities to anticipate topics that may produce numerous FOIA requests
("hot button" issues) and post relevant documents. Education is planning
to use its automated tracking technology to determine when it is receiving
multiple requests for similar information and then post such information
on its Web site.^43 Based on its FOIA review, NRC determined that it would
be helpful to requesters for the agency to provide examples of the types
of information in NRC documents that might be covered by FOIA exemptions,
and it established goals to achieve this.

The Treasury plan does not address increasing public dissemination of
records. Treasury's plan, as mentioned earlier, is focused on backlog
reduction. It does not mention the other areas emphasized in the Executive
Order, list them among the areas it selected for review, or explain the
decision to omit them from the review and plan. Treasury officials told us
that they concentrated in their plan on areas where they determined the
department had a deficiency: namely, a backlog consisting of numerous
requests, some of which were very old (dating as far back as 1991). By
comparison, they did not consider they had deficiencies in the other
areas. With regard to increasing dissemination, they noted that their Web
sites currently provide frequently requested records. However, without a
careful review of the department's current dissemination practices or a
plan to take actions to increase dissemination, Treasury does not have
assurance that it has identified and exploited available opportunities to
increase dissemination of records in such a way as to reduce the need for
the public to make FOIA requests, as stressed by the Executive Order.

Most Agency Plans Included Improving Status Communications with FOIA
Requesters

The Executive Order sets as policy that agencies shall provide FOIA
requesters ways to learn about the status of their FOIA requests and
states that agency improvement plans shall ensure that FOIA administration
is in accordance with this policy. In its implementation guidance, Justice
reiterated the order's emphasis on providing status information to
requesters and discussed the need for agencies to examine, among other
things, their capabilities for tracking status and the forms of
communication used with requesters.

Most agencies (22 of 25) established goals and timetables for improving
communications with FOIA requesters about the status of their requests.
Goals set by these agencies included planned changes to communications,
including sending acknowledgement letters, standardizing letters to
requesters, including information on elements of a proper FOIA request in
response letters, and posting contact information on Web pages. Both NASA
and Interior planned to establish toll free numbers for requesters to
obtain status information. NASA also included plans to acquire software
that would allow a requester to access and track status of his or her
request. Interior planned to develop and post frequently asked questions
to provide requesters with information about where to submit their
requests, processing times, fees charged, and how to check on the status
of their requests. HUD's plan included posting information on its Web
site, providing training on customer service, and gauging progress through
public forums at which it can receive comments on improving FOIA
performance.

Three agencies did not include improvement goals because they considered
them unnecessary. In two cases (Defense and EPA), agencies considered that
status communications were already an area of strength.

Defense considered that it was strong in both customer responsiveness and
communications. Defense performed extensive surveys of the opinions and
practices of its FOIA staff and Public Liaisons^44 and concluded that
"FOIA personnel routinely contact requesters to try to resolve problems
and to better define requests." Defense's Web site provides instructions
for requesters on how to get information about the status of requests, as
well as information on Requester Service Centers and Public Liaisons.
Defense officials also told us that this information is included in
acknowledgement letters to requesters. In addition, these officials stated
that planned revisions to Defense FOIA Web sites would promote improving
status communications, and that the department is working to implement an
Interactive Customer Collection tool that would enable requesters to
provide feedback.

Similarly, EPA officials told us that they considered the agency's
activities to communicate with requesters on the status of their requests
to be already effective, noting that many of the improvements planned by
other agencies were already in effect at EPA. For example, EPA sends out
an acknowledgment letter within a day of the request that includes a
tracking number, the department that will be involved, and a contact name
and telephone number. Officials also stated that EPA holds regular FOIA
requester forums, the last held on November 1, 2006, and that EPA's
requester community had expressed satisfaction with EPA's responsiveness.
EPA's response to the Executive Order describes its efforts to communicate
with requesters, including activities of staff at its FOIA Service Center
and a FOIA hotline through which callers may receive information on the
status of their requests. It also describes the enterprise FOIA management
system, deployed in 2005, that provides "cradle to grave" tracking of
incoming requests and responses.

The third agency, Treasury, did not address improving status
communications, as its plan is entirely focused on backlog reduction. As
required by the Executive Order, Treasury did set up Requester Service
Centers and Public Liaisons, which are among the mechanisms envisioned to
improve status communications. However, because Treasury omitted status
communications from the areas of improvement that it selected for review,
it is not clear that this area received attention commensurate with the
emphasis it was given in the Executive Order. Without such attention to
communication with requesters, Treasury increases the risk that its FOIA
operations will not be as responsive and citizen centered as the Executive
Order envisioned.

Agencies Generally Plan to Rely on FOIA Reference Guides to Increase
Public Awareness of FOIA Processing

The Executive Order states that improvement plans shall include activities
to increase public awareness of FOIA processing, including (as
appropriate) expanded use of Requester Service Centers and FOIA Public
Liaisons, which agencies were required to establish by the order. In
Justice's guidance, it linked this requirement to the FOIA Reference Guide
that agencies are required to maintain as an aid to potential FOIA
requesters, because such guides can be an effective means for increasing
public awareness. Accordingly, the Justice guidance advised agencies to
double-check these guides to ensure that they remain comprehensive and up
to date.

Most agencies (23 of 25) defined goals and timetables for increasing
public awareness of FOIA processing, generally including ensuring that
FOIA reference guides were up to date. In addition, all 25 agencies
established Requester Service Centers and Public Liaisons as required by
the Executive Order. Besides these activities, certain agencies planned
other types of outreach: for example, the Department of State reported
taking steps to obtain feedback from the public on how to improve FOIA
processes; GSA plans to post information about what GSA can and cannot
release; the Department of the Interior plans to initiate feedback surveys
on requesters' FOIA experience; and the Department of Labor is planning to
hold public forums and solicit suggestions from the requester community.
Defense did not set specific goals and milestones in this area; according
to Defense, it did not do so because its FOIA handbook had already been
updated in the fall of 2005. The department also established Requester
Service Centers and Public Liaisons, as required. Department officials
told us that in meeting their goals and milestones for revising FOIA Web
sites, they expect to improve awareness of Defense's FOIA process, as well
as public access and other objectives.

As mentioned earlier, Treasury did not address this area in its review or
plan. However, Treasury has established Requester Service Centers and FOIA
Public Liaisons, as required. Treasury's Director of Disclosure
Services^45 also told us that Treasury provides on its Web site a FOIA
handbook, a Privacy Act handbook, and a citizen's guide for requesters. In
addition, this official told us that Treasury had updated its FOIA
handbook in 2005 and conducted staff training based on the update.
However, at the time of our review, the FOIA handbook on the Web site was
a version dated January 2000. When we pointed out that this earlier
version was posted, the official indicated that he would arrange for the
most recent version to be posted.

Because Treasury did not review its efforts to increase public awareness,
it missed an opportunity to discover that the handbook on the Web site was
outdated and thus might not provide assurance to the public that the
information provided was fully up to date, reducing its effectiveness as a
communication tool. Without further attention to increasing public
awareness, Treasury lacks assurance that it has taken all appropriate
steps to ensure that the public has the means of understanding the
agency's FOIA processing.

Conclusions

The annual FOIA reports continue to provide valuable information about
citizens' use of this important tool to obtain information about the
operation and decisions of the federal government. The value of this
information clearly depends, however, on its accuracy. In the case of the
USDA's Farm Service Agency, which is not assured of the accuracy of its
data, the department's FOIA improvement plan is an opportunity to address
data reliability along with other processing improvements. In addition,
one value of the annual reports lies in the possibility they provide of
seeing trends and drawing generalizations. However, our ability to
generalize about processing times, whether from agency to agency or year
to year, is limited because only median times are reported. Since
processing times are an important gauge of government responsiveness to
citizen inquiries, this limitation is significant. Medians are useful as
representative numbers that are not skewed by a few outliers, but the
addition of averages (arithmetic means) and ranges would enhance the
ability to make useful comparisons and provide a more complete picture.
Finally, in the absence of aggregated statistics and summaries, as
formerly provided by the Justice Department, it is difficult to obtain a
governmentwide picture of FOIA processing. Providing such statistics and
summaries could increase the value of the annual reporting process for
assessing the performance of the FOIA program as a whole.

The Executive Order provided a useful impetus for agencies to review their
FOIA operations and ensure that they are appropriately responsive to the
public generally and requesters specifically. The 25 agencies submitted
FOIA improvement plans that generally responded to elements emphasized by
the Executive Order and form a reasonable basis for carrying out the
order's goals. In general, all the plans show a commendable focus on
making measurable improvements. One agency (Treasury) submitted a plan
that could be improved by closer adherence to the other elements, besides
backlog, specified by the Executive Order.

Implementing the improvement plans and reporting on their progress should
serve to keep management attention on FOIA and its role in keeping
citizens well informed about the operations of their government. However,
to realize the goals of the Executive Order, it will be important for
Justice and the agencies to continue to refine the improvement plans and
monitor progress in their implementation.

Matters for Congressional Consideration

To improve the usefulness of the statistics in agency annual FOIA reports,
the Congress should consider amending the act to require agencies to
report additional statistics on processing time, which at a minimum should
include average times and ranges.

Recommendations for Executive Action

To provide a clearer picture of FOIA processing both in a given year and
over time, we recommend that the Attorney General direct Justice's Office
of Information and Privacy to use data from annual reports to develop
summaries and aggregate statistics (as appropriate) for categories of
agencies (such as major departments), as well as governmentwide.

To ensure that USDA data in FOIA annual reports are accurate and complete,
we recommend that the Secretary of Agriculture direct the Chief FOIA
Officer for the department to revise the department's FOIA improvement
plan to include activities, goals, and milestones to improve data
reliability for the Farm Service Agency and to monitor results.

To ensure that its plan includes an appropriate focus on communicating
with requesters and the public, we recommend that the Secretary of the
Treasury direct the department's Chief FOIA Officer to review its FOIA
operations in the other areas emphasized in the Executive Order
(increasing reliance on public dissemination of records, improving
communications with FOIA requesters about the status of their requests,
and increasing public awareness of FOIA processing) and, as appropriate,
revise the improvement plan for fiscal year 2007 to include goals and
milestones in these areas.

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

We provided a draft of this report to OMB and the 25 agencies for review
and comment. All but one agency (the Department of the Treasury) generally
agreed with our assessment and recommendations or had no comment.^46 Seven
agencies provided written comments: the Departments of Agriculture,
Justice, the Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, along with AID, EPA, and NSF
(printed in apps. II through VIII). In addition, OMB, the Interior,
Transportation, HUD, OPM, and SSA provided technical comments, which we
incorporated as appropriate.

The Acting Director of Justice's Office of Information and Policy
concurred with our assessment and stated that Justice agrees with our
recommendation and plans to implement it (see app. III). The Acting
Director stated that the office plans to resume compiling summaries of the
annual reports, beginning with those for fiscal year 2006.

The Chief FOIA Officer of Agriculture provided additional information on
actions that the department has taken to improve FOIA processing, as well
as actions that the Farm Service Agency is taking to ensure that its data
are reliable (see app. II).

Except for Treasury, other agencies providing written comments generally
provided additional information on their FOIA programs or provided
suggestions on the draft.

oEPA and NSF offered additional information about their FOIA operations.

oBoth VA and AID stated their view that ample time should be given to
accommodate reporting changes.

oVA also suggested including cases both received and processed in our
discussion of the increase in pending requests. We augmented the section
on pending requests to include a reference to statistics on cases received
and processed.

In written and e-mail comments, the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Headquarters Operations indicated that the department generally agreed
with our premise that Treasury's plan needs to more thoroughly integrate
the Executive Order and noted that the plan is a living, dynamic document
that will accommodate changing circumstances. (Treasury's written comments
are provided in app. IV.) The Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary stated
that the department will be evaluating its improvement plan and taking
action to improve its FOIA administration. However, Treasury also
partially disagreed with our assessment, and it disagreed with our
recommendation.

According to Treasury, our assessment and recommendation minimize the
importance of reducing backlog in the Executive Order and Justice guidance
and do not give sufficient weight to other aspects of its improvement
plan, such as the establishment of a FOIA council to improve FOIA
administration, the establishment of FOIA Requester Service Centers and
Public Liaisons, and its compliance with the e-FOIA amendments'
requirement that frequently posted records be posted on agency Web sites.
Further, Treasury considered that our assessment does not sufficiently
recognize the activities and programs that the department already had in
place (beyond backlog reduction) before the order was issued, which were
not included in its plan (such as technology improvements to upgrade the
department's FOIA tracking system in 2005 and to upgrade IRS databases).

We do not believe that we minimize the importance of reducing backlog; our
report indicates that this is a major focus of the Executive Order.
However, it was not the only focus of the Executive Order, which also
emphasized a citizen-centered approach to FOIA implementation. The three
areas of emphasis that we suggest would benefit from further attention are
all related to a citizen-centered approach in that they focus on
communication with the public and especially with requesters. It may be
that Treasury's FOIA council will provide this focus; however, this was
not clear from the agency's plan, which included no milestones or goals in
these areas to guide the council's future activities.

We also disagree with Treasury's view that we do not give sufficient
weight to the activities that the plan included or that Treasury officials
indicated were already in progress. Although we took these into account,
they did not provide evidence that Treasury was already giving or planned
to give the level of attention to the three areas of emphasis that was
envisioned by the Executive Order. For example, although Treasury's
compliance with the 1996 e-FOIA amendments is important, the Executive
Order asks agencies to look for opportunities to go beyond complying with
legal requirements to disseminate records. Similarly, although the
technology improvements that Treasury described have the potential to
improve FOIA processing (including improvements in the three areas of
emphasis), the plan did not tie these improvements and actions to goals or
milestones in the three areas. As a result, we did not change our
assessment. However, we have clarified the language of the report to
emphasize that our assessment is based on meeting the level of attention
emphasized in the Executive Order.

We note, however, that Treasury in its comments indicates that it does
plan to continue to reevaluate its improvement plan and modify it to
accommodate changing circumstances. If future modifications specifically
address external communications, particularly with requesters, the goal of
our recommendation may be achieved.

We are sending copies of this report to the Attorney General, the Director
of the Office of Management and Budget, and the heads of departments and
agencies we reviewed. Copies will be made available to others on request.
In addition, this report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web
site at www.gao.gov.

If you should have questions about this report, please contact me at (202)
512-6240 or via e-mail at [email protected] . Contact points for
our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on
the last page of this report. GAO staff who made major contributions to
this report are listed in appendix XI.

Linda D. Koontz
Director, Information Management Issues

Appendix I
Scope and Methodology

To gauge agencies' progress in processing requests, we analyzed the
workload data (from fiscal year 2002 through 2005) included in the 25
agencies' annual FOIA reports to assess trends in volume of requests
received and processed, median processing times, and the number of pending
cases. All agency workload data were self-reported in annual reports
submitted to the Attorney General.

To assess the reliability of the information contained in agency annual
reports, we interviewed officials from selected agencies and assessed
quality control processes agencies had in place. We selected 10 agencies
to assess data reliability: the Departments of Agriculture (USDA),
Defense, Education, the Interior, Labor, and Veterans Affairs, as well as
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science
Foundation, Small Business Administration, and Social Security
Administration. We chose the Social Security Administration and Veterans
Affairs because they processed a majority of the requests. To ensure that
we selected agencies of varying size, we chose the remaining 8 agencies by
ordering them according to the number of requests they received, from
smallest to largest, and choosing every third agency. These 10 agencies
account for 97 percent of the received requests that were reported in the
25 agencies' annual reports.

Of the 10 agencies that were assessed for data reliability, we determined
that the data for USDA's Farm Service Agency were not reliable; these data
account for over 80 percent of the reported USDA data. We therefore
eliminated USDA's data from our analysis. Because of this elimination, our
analysis was of 24 major agencies^1 (herein we refer to this scope as
governmentwide). Table 9 shows the 25 agencies and their reliability
assessment status.

Table 9: Agencies Reviewed

Agency                                       Abbreviation Data reliability 
                                                             assessment       
Agency for International Development         AID          Not assessed     
Central Intelligence Agency                  CIA          Not assessed     
Department of Agriculture                    USDA         Not reliable     
Department of Commerce                       DOC          Not assessed     
Department of Defense                        DOD          Reliable         
Department of Education                      ED           Reliable         
Department of Energy                         DOE          Not assessed     
Department of Health and Human Services      HHS          Not assessed     
Department of Homeland Security ^a           DHS          Not assessed     
Federal Emergency Management Agency ^a       FEMA         Not applicable   
Department of Housing and Urban Development  HUD          Not assessed     
Department of the Interior                   DOI          Reliable         
Department of Justice                        DOJ          Not assessed     
Department of Labor                          DOL          Reliable         
Department of State                          State        Not assessed     
Department of the Treasury                   Treas        Not assessed     
Department of Transportation                 DOT          Not assessed     
Department of Veterans Affairs               VA           Reliable         
Environmental Protection Agency              EPA          Not assessed     
General Services Administration              GSA          Not assessed     
National Aeronautics and Space               NASA         Reliable         
Administration                                                             
National Science Foundation                  NSF          Reliable         
Nuclear Regulatory Commission                NRC          Not assessed     
Office of Personnel Management               OPM          Not assessed     
Small Business Administration                SBA          Reliable         
Social Security Administration               SSA          Reliable         

Source: GAO.

^aFEMA information was reported separately in fiscal year 2002. In fiscal
years 2003, 2004, and 2005, FEMA was part of DHS.

To determine to what extent the agency improvement plans contain the
elements emphasized by the order, we first analyzed the Executive Order to
determine how it described the contents of the improvement plans. We
determined that the order emphasized the following areas to be addressed
by the plans: (1) reducing the backlog of FOIA requests, (2) increasing
reliance on public dissemination of records (affirmative and proactive)
including through Web sites, (3) improving communications with FOIA
requesters about the status of their requests, and (4) increasing public
awareness of FOIA processing including updating an agency's FOIA Reference
Guide. We also analyzed the improvement plans to determine if they
contained specific outcome-oriented goals and timetables for each of the
criteria. We then analyzed the 25 agencies' (including USDA) plans to
determine whether they contained goals and timetables for each of these
four elements.^2  We evaluated the versions of agency plans available as
of December 15, 2006.

We also reviewed the Executive Order itself, implementing guidance issued
by OMB and the Department of Justice, other FOIA guidance issued by
Justice, and our past work in this area.

We conducted our review in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards. We performed our work from May 2006 to January 2007 in
Washington, D.C.

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Agriculture

Appendix III
Comments from the Department of Justice

Appendix IV
Comments from the Department of the Treasury 

Appendix V
Comments from the Department of Veterans Affairs 

Appendix VI
Comments from the Agency for International Development

Appendix VII
Comments from the Environmental Protection Agency 

Appendix VIII
Comments from the National Science Foundation

Appendix IX
Freedom of Information Act Exemptions

The act prescribes nine specific categories of information that is exempt
from disclosure:

Exemption number Matters that are exempt from FOIA                         
(1)              (A) Specifically authorized under criteria established by 
                    an Executive Order to be kept secret in the interest of   
                    national defense or foreign policy and (B) are in fact    
                    properly classified pursuant to such Executive Order.     
(2)              Related solely to the internal personnel rules and        
                    practices of an agency.                                   
(3)              Specifically exempted from disclosure by statute (other   
                    than section 552b of this title), provided that such      
                    statute (A) requires that matters be withheld from the    
                    public in such a manner as to leave no discretion on the  
                    issue, or (B) establishes particular criteria for         
                    withholding or refers to particular types of matters to   
                    be withheld.                                              
(4)              Trade secrets and commercial or financial information     
                    obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.    
(5)              Inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which 
                    would not be available by law to a party other than an    
                    agency in litigation with the agency.                     
(6)              Personnel and medical files and similar files the         
                    disclosure of which would constitute a clearly            
                    unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.                 
(7)              Records or information compiled for law enforcement       
                    purposes, but only to the extent that the production of   
                    such law enforcement records or information               
(A)              could reasonably be expected to interfere with            
                    enforcement proceedings;                                  
(B)              would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or      
                    impartial adjudication;                                   
(C)              could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted 
                    invasion of personal privacy;                             
(D)              could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of  
                    a confidential source, including a State, local, or       
                    foreign agency or authority or any private institution    
                    which furnished information on a confidential basis, and, 
                    in the case of a record or information compiled by a      
                    criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a     
                    criminal investigation or by an agency conducting a       
                    lawful national security intelligence investigation,      
                    information furnished by confidential source;             
(E)              would disclose techniques and procedures for law          
                    enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would      
                    disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or 
                    prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be       
                    expected to risk circumvention of the law; or             
(F)              could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or      
                    physical safety of an individual.                         
(8)              Contained in or related to examination, operating, or     
                    condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the   
                    use of an agency responsible for the regulation of        
                    supervision of financial institutions.                    
(9)              Geological and geophysical information and data,          
                    including maps, concerning wells.                         

Source: 5 U.S.C. S 552(b)(1) through (b)(9).

Appendix X
Median Processing Times Reported 

The attached tables present median processing times as reported by
agencies in their annual FOIA reports in fiscal years 2004 and 2005. To
provide context, we include numbers of requests processed for each agency
or component. We also indicate (in columns headed "+-") whether the median
days to process rose (+), fell (-), or remained unchanged (=). (We also
use "~" to indicate other types of changes, such as the establishment of a
new component.)

Agencies report median processing times according to processing tracks:
that is, some agencies divide requests into simple and complex categories
and process these in separate tracks, whereas others use a single track.
Accordingly, the tables show these tracks where applicable. In addition,
agencies are required to subject some requests to expedited processing,
and these are reported as a separate track.

Tables for the agencies are presented in the following order, which
corresponds to the order generally used in the figures and tables provided
in the statement:

                                        

AID               Agency for International Development                     
CIA               Central Intelligence Agency                              
DHS               Department of Homeland Security                          
DOC               Department of Commerce                                   
DOD               Department of Defense                                    
DOE               Department of Energy                                     
DOI               Department of the Interior                               
DOJ               Department of Justice                                    
DOL               Department of Labor                                      
DOT               Department of Transportation                             
ED                Department of Education                                  
EPA               Environmental Protection Agency                          
GSA               General Services Administration                          
HHS               Department of Health and Human Services                  
HUD               Department of Housing and Urban Development              
NASA              National Aeronautics and Space Administration            
NRC               Nuclear Regulatory Commission                            
NSF               National Science Foundation                              
OPM               Office of Personnel Management                           
SBA               Small Business Administration                            
SSA               Social Security Administration                           
State             Department of State                                      
Treas             Department of the Treasury                               
VA                Department of Veterans Affairs                           

Agency for International Development

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

           Single      Expedited 
            No.                  Days         No.           Days      
Agency    2004 2005           2004 2005 +-     2004 2005      2004 2005 +- 
AID        209  196             54   55  +        3    1        13   34  + 

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Central Intelligence Agency

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

       Simple      Complex      Expedited 
        No.         Days           No.       Days        No.   Days 
Agency   2004 2005         2004      2005 +-       2004  2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
CIA       501  577            7         7  =      2,834 2,533    63   68  +     1    0    10  n/a    

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Department of Homeland Security

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

               Simple         Complex      Expedited 
                 No.           Days           No.       Days         No.    Days 
Component         2004   2005         2004      2005 +-        2004   2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
Office of the      279    604           19        16  -          98    134    66  102  +    48    1     9   11  + 
Secretary/                                                                                                        
Privacy Office                                                                                                    
Office of the      n/a      0          n/a       n/a             21     14    44   91  +     0    3   n/a    5    
Inspector                                                                                                         
General                                                                                                           
Office of the      (a)      0          (a)       n/a  ~         (a)      1   (a)  222  ~   (a)    0   (a)  n/a  ~ 
General                                                                                                           
Counsel                                                                                                           
Information        n/a      0          n/a       n/a            n/a     51   n/a   30  ~   n/a    0   n/a  n/a    
Analysis &                                                                                                        
Infrastructure                                                                                                    
Protection                                                                                                        
Emergency          101    186           14        61  +         128    345    48  178  +    28   14     9   45  + 
Preparedness &                                                                                                    
Response                                                                                                          
Science &          (a)      1          (a)        30  ~         (a)      1   (a)  210  ~   (a)    0   (a)  n/a  ~ 
Technology                                                                                                        
U.S. Coast       6,735  6,035           13        16  +         638    608    21   21  =    30   11    11    2  - 
Guard                                                                                                             
U.S. Secret          0      0          n/a       n/a            912    701   111  149  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Service                                                                                                           
U.S.           105,567 85,307           16        45  +      27,850 19,532    31   55  +   580   95     8   15  + 
Citizenship &                                                                                                     
Immigration                                                                                                       
Services                                                                                                          
US-VISIT           (a)     14          (a)        17  ~         (a)      1   (a)   60  ~   (a)    0   (a)  n/a  ~ 
Border &                                                                                                          
Transportation                                                                                                    
Security                                                                                                          
CBP              2,317  3,174           20        17  -       1,986  3,815    30   12  -     4  890     3   17  + 
TSA                828     11            8        16  +       1,307  1,199    29   13  -     2    2    45   28  - 
ICE              1,124    661           84        35  -         n/a    881   n/a  242  ~   n/a    0   n/a  n/a    
FLETC              n/a      0          n/a       n/a  ~       1,451  1,834     5    3  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

^aComponent did not exist.

Department of Commerce

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

         Simple       Complex      Expedited 
          No.          Days           No.       Days      No.   Days 
Agency     2004  2005         2004      2005 +-      2004 2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
Commerce  1,564 1,321           13        12  -       465  511    41   40  -     6    2     5    8  + 

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Department of Defense

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

        Simple        Complex      Expedited 
         No.           Days           No.       Days         No.    Days 
Agency    2004   2005         2004      2005 +-        2004   2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
Defense 63,443 66,979           17        16  -      12,972 11,385    59   85  +   841  411     1    0  - 

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Department of Energy

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

               Simple      Complex      Expedited 
                No.         Days           No.       Days      No.   Days 
  Component      2004 2005         2004      2005 +-      2004 2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
National          118   76           30        15  -        99  108    58  170  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Nuclear                                                                                                    
Security                                                                                                   
Administration                                                                                             
Service Center                                                                                             
Albuquerque                                                                                                
Bonneville         54   54           12        20  +         0    0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Power                                                                                                      
Administration                                                                                             
Carlsbad Field      0  654          n/a        20           10   14    35   57  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Office                                                                                                     
Chicago             0   36          n/a        21           38    0    21  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Operations                                                                                                 
Office                                                                                                     
Golden Field       21   11           14        33  +         2    1  20.5   66  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Office                                                                                                     
Idaho              45   46           11        13  +        34   34    41   36  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Operations                                                                                                 
Office                                                                                                     
National            9    7           20        10  -         9   26    25   30  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Energy                                                                                                     
Technology                                                                                                 
Operations                                                                                                 
Office of         (a)    7          (a)        10  ~       (a)    0   (a)  n/a      (a)    0   (a)  n/a  ~ 
Naval Reactors                                                                                             
Oak Ridge       1,012  970          158        31  -       139   42   257  112  -    30   14     7   12  + 
Operations                                                                                                 
Office                                                                                                     
Ohio               89  156          152        28  -         0    0   n/a  n/a       10    0     5  n/a  ~ 
Environmental                                                                                              
Management                                                                                                 
Consolidated                                                                                               
Business                                                                                                   
Center                                                                                                     
Office of          42   71           15        19  +        29   13    60   73  +     0    0   n/a    0    
Repository                                                                                                 
Development                                                                                                
Richland            0  190          n/a        31          115    0    18  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Operations                                                                                                 
Office                                                                                                     
Rocky Flats         0  794          n/a       106           16    0   916  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Environmental                                                                                              
Management                                                                                                 
Consolidated                                                                                               
Business                                                                                                   
Center                                                                                                     
Savannah River     65   40           61        73  +         0    0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Operations                                                                                                 
Office                                                                                                     
Office of           1    3            1        10  +         0    0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Scientific and                                                                                             
Technical                                                                                                  
Information                                                                                                
Southeastern        3    0           10       n/a            0    0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Power                                                                                                      
Administration                                                                                             
Southwestern        5    4           10         5  -         0    2   n/a   10        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Power                                                                                                      
Administration                                                                                             
Strategic          13   13           10        21  +         0    2   n/a   82        0    4   n/a    1    
Petroleum                                                                                                  
Reserve                                                                                                    
Western Area       35   40           10        10  =         2    4    20   15  -     0    1   n/a    5    
Power                                                                                                      
Administration                                                                                             
Department of     395  384           81        41  -         0    0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Energy                                                                                                     
Headquarters                                                                                               

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

^aComponent did not exist.

Department of the Interior

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

            Simple       Complex       Expedited 
             No.          Days            No.       Days      No.   Days  
Component     2004  2005          2004      2005 +-      2004 2005   2004  2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
Department   4,126 6,206         3-834      2-43  ~        30  189  56-99 28-89  ~    63   25  2-64 1-15  ~ 
of the                                                                                                      
Interior                                                                                                    
Office of      (a)   (a)          3-48      2-12          (a)  (a)     99    89  -   (a)  (a)    64    2  - 
the                                                                                                         
Secretary                                                                                                   
Office of      (a)   (a)           834         7  -       (a)  (a)    n/a   n/a      (a)  (a)     2    1  - 
Inspector                                                                                                   
General                                                                                                     
Office of      (a)   (a)            15        18  +       (a)  (a)    n/a   n/a      (a)  (a)   n/a  n/a    
the                                                                                                         
Solicitor                                                                                                   
Office of      (a)   (a)            21        13  -       (a)  (a)      0    55  +   (a)  (a)   n/a  n/a    
Surface                                                                                                     
Mining                                                                                                      
Minerals       (a)   (a)            22      8-20  ~       (a)  (a)    n/a    28      (a)  (a)    14  n/a    
Management                                                                                                  
Service                                                                                                     
Bureau of      (a)   (a)         13-21        23          (a)  (a)     56    57  +   (a)  (a)     5    6  + 
Land                                                                                                        
Management                                                                                                  
Fish and       (a)   (a)            35        29  -       (a)  (a)    n/a   n/a      (a)  (a)    10   15  + 
Wildlife                                                                                                    
Service                                                                                                     
National       (a)   (a)            20        19  -       (a)  (a)    n/a   n/a      (a)  (a)    10  n/a    
Park                                                                                                        
Service                                                                                                     
Bureau of      (a)   (a)            20        18  -       (a)  (a)    n/a   n/a      (a)  (a)     8    1  - 
Reclamation                                                                                                 
U.S.           (a)   (a)            18        14  -       (a)  (a)    n/a   n/a      (a)  (a)   n/a  n/a    
Geological                                                                                                  
Survey                                                                                                      
Bureau of      (a)   (a)           158        43  -       (a)  (a)    n/a   n/a      (a)  (a)   n/a  n/a    
Indian                                                                                                      
Affairs                                                                                                     

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

^aStatistics not broken down by component.

Note: The Department of Interior reported the number of requests processed
as a department, not by individual components. The Department of Interior
reports simple, normal, and complex tracks. The range used for simple
requests contains both simple and normal requests.

Department of Justice

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

                  Simple        Complex      Expedited 
                   No.           Days           No.       Days        No.   Days 
    Component       2004   2005         2004      2005 +-       2004  2005  2004  2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
Office of the        401    213           17        27  +         23    35   480   362  -     2    3   135   96  - 
Attorney General                                                                                                   
Office of the        246    108           17        29  +         15    10   291   363  +     0    2   n/a   62    
Deputy Attorney                                                                                                    
General                                                                                                            
Office of the         52     40           44        89  +          4     0   344   n/a        1    2    47  112  + 
Associate                                                                                                          
Attorney General                                                                                                   
Antitrust            145    131           18        19  +         13    14   412   484  +     1    0    18  n/a    
Division                                                                                                           
Bureau of Prisons 15,047 13,243           15        16  +        680   475    28    29  +    13   25     1    3  + 
Bureau of          2,437  1,719            7         8  +          0     0   n/a   n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Alcohol, Tobacco,                                                                                                  
Firearms, and                                                                                                      
Explosives                                                                                                         
Civil Division       859    466            9        10  +          0     0   n/a   n/a        0    1   n/a    7    
Civil Rights         473    565            8         8  =         60   100   283   359  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Division                                                                                                           
Community              8      2           10        10  =          0     0   n/a   n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Relations Service                                                                                                  
Criminal Division      0      0          n/a       n/a         1,414 1,291    16    35  +     2    1    31   97  + 
Drug Enforcement       0      0          n/a       n/a         1,933 1,569    12    16  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Administration                                                                                                     
Environment and        0      0          n/a       n/a           177   145    40    53  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Natural Resources                                                                                                  
Division                                                                                                           
Executive Office   7,811  9,367           29        43  +        681   476    89   149  +    65   27    26   44  + 
for Immigration                                                                                                    
Review                                                                                                             
Executive Office   4,848  3,751           46        58  +          0     0   n/a   n/a       73   84   195  169  - 
for United States                                                                                                  
Attorneys                                                                                                          
Executive Office       0      0          n/a       n/a            61    65     6    19  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
for United States                                                                                                  
Trustees                                                                                                           
Federal Bureau of 10,253 10,828            6         6  =        (b)   (b)   n/a   n/a       35   14    41   42  + 
Investigation                                                                                                      
Foreign Claims        17      9            5         5  =          0     0   n/a   n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Settlement                                                                                                         
Commission                                                                                                         
Justice            3,128  2,130            8       (c)            31    35    35   (c)        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Management                                                                                                         
Division                                                                                                           
National Drug         80     58           22        21  -          3     3    30    73  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Intelligence                                                                                                       
Center                                                                                                             
Office of            101     61           14         8  -          0     0   n/a   n/a        2    0     6  n/a    
Community                                                                                                          
Oriented Policing                                                                                                  
Services                                                                                                           
Office of Dispute      8      4            5         5  =          0     0   n/a   n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Resolution                                                                                                         
Office of the         27     11            7         8  +          2     0   105   n/a        0    1   n/a    7    
Federal Detention                                                                                                  
Trustee                                                                                                            
Office of            434    443           12        13  +          1     1   397    52  -     0    1   n/a  185    
Information and                                                                                                    
Privacy                                                                                                            
Office of the        241    208           10      11.5  +          0     0   n/a   n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Inspector General                                                                                                  
Office of             28     33            8         6  -          6    17    27    31  +     0    2   n/a   16    
Intelligence                                                                                                       
Policy and Review                                                                                                  
Office of             15      6           41        46  +          0     0   n/a   n/a        0    1   n/a   38    
Intergovernmental                                                                                                  
and Public                                                                                                         
Liaison                                                                                                            
Office of Justice    493    206            1         2  +         59   108    25    25  =     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Programs                                                                                                           
Office of Legal       55     68           10        10  =          9    16    30    30  =     0    1   n/a   40    
Counsel                                                                                                            
Office of Legal       47     76           37        58  +          2     3   188   863  +     0    2   n/a   28    
Policy                                                                                                             
Office of             58     63           84        86  +          6     9   386   330  -     0    2   n/a   67    
Legislative                                                                                                        
Affairs                                                                                                            
Office of the         40     43           29        21  -          3     0   100   n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Pardon Attorney                                                                                                    
Office of            129     86           19        15  -          7     9   389   334  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Professional                                                                                                       
Responsibility                                                                                                     
Office of Public      20     22          137       139  +          3     3   226   730  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Affairs                                                                                                            
Office of the         73     64           60        60  =          0     0   n/a   n/a        2   22     8   10  + 
Solicitor General                                                                                                  
Office on            (a)     14          (a)        50  ~        (a)     0   (a)   n/a  ~   (a)    0   (a)  n/a  ~ 
Violence Against                                                                                                   
Women                                                                                                              
Professional          13     14            3       3.5  +          0     0   n/a   n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Responsibility                                                                                                     
Advisory Office                                                                                                    
Tax Division         226    237            0         0  =         27    26    15    28  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
U.S. Marshals      1,531    999           21        26  +         16    17   130 195.5  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Service                                                                                                            
U.S. National        271    184            5         6  +         10    18    24    21  -     2    3     3    2  - 
Central                                                                                                            
Bureau--INTERPOL                                                                                                   
U.S. Parole            0      0          n/a       n/a         1,351 1,011    20    12  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Commission                                                                                                         

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

^aComponent did not exist.

^bIn addition to the expedited track, the FBI maintains three tracks for
requests: small (0 to 500 pages), medium (501 to 2,500 pages), and large
(more than 2,500 pages). The former is reported in the "simple requests"
category; the latter two are reported as "complex requests." Therefore
FBI's complex requests were excluded from analysis.

^cJustice Management Division used average days opposed to median days, so
it was excluded.

Department of Labor

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

                                        

                  Simple       Complex      Expedited 
                   No.          Days           No.       Days        No.   Days 
    Component       2004  2005         2004      2005 +-       2004  2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
Occupational       8,410 7,855            7        13  +      2,695 3,431    18   45  +    34   82     4   18  + 
Safety and Health                                                                                                
Administration                                                                                                   
Employment         6,670 6,948           17        13  -      1,057   904    23   37  +    89   73     5    9  + 
Standards                                                                                                        
Administration                                                                                                   
Mine Safety and    1,150     0           17       n/a             0 1,058   n/a   20        0    3   n/a    7    
Health                                                                                                           
Administration                                                                                                   
Employment and       480   270           15        20  +         35    94    20   30  +     1    5     2   10  + 
Training                                                                                                         
Administration                                                                                                   
Employee Benefits    367 1,456           11         7  -         65   257    40   34  -     0    2   n/a   10    
Security                                                                                                         
Administration                                                                                                   
Office of the        152   151           13        13  =         62    35    20   26  +     1    1     2    4  + 
Assistant                                                                                                        
Secretary for                                                                                                    
Administration                                                                                                   
and Management                                                                                                   
Administrative       215   206            2        10  +          0     0   n/a  n/a        0    6   n/a    3    
Law Judges                                                                                                       
Veterans'             71    87           27        10  -         15    19    29   39  +     2    1     8    8  = 
Employment and                                                                                                   
Training Service                                                                                                 
Office of the         71    47           30        28  -          8    28    60   50  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Inspector General                                                                                                
Bureau of Labor       56    54           13        17  +          0     0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Statistics                                                                                                       
Office of             25    52            7         6  -          4     0    18  n/a        2    0     2  n/a    
Adjudicatory                                                                                                     
Services                                                                                                         
Womens Bureau         27    19           15        10  -          0     2   n/a   25        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Office of             12    23           20        30  +          0     0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Disability                                                                                                       
Employment Policy                                                                                                
Office of the          3    16           25        20  -          2     1    25   60  +     1    0    25  n/a    
Assistant                                                                                                        
Secretary for                                                                                                    
Policy                                                                                                           
Office of              0     0          n/a       n/a             0     0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Congressional and                                                                                                
Intergovernmental                                                                                                
Affairs                                                                                                          
Bureau of              4    24           16         7  -          9     2    30   14  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    
International                                                                                                    
Labor Affairs                                                                                                    
Office of the         12     8           10         7  -          0     0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Chief Financial                                                                                                  
Officer                                                                                                          
Office of Public       7     8            7         7  =          0     0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Affairs                                                                                                          
Office of Small       22    22           30        10  -          0     0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Business Programs                                                                                                
Office of the         62    30           12        14  +          7     3    54   30  -     0    1   n/a    2    
Solicitor                                                                                                        

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Department of Transportation

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

               Simple       Complex      Expedited 
                No.          Days           No.       Days        No.   Days 
Component        2004  2005         2004      2005 +-       2004  2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
Office of the     320   150            1         1  =        394    87    82   77  -     0   10   n/a   30    
Secretary of                                                                                                  
Transportation                                                                                                
Office of          60    50            6         8  +         46    34    51   64  +     3    0    57  n/a    
Inspector                                                                                                     
General                                                                                                       
Federal         5,162 4,401            4         3  -      2,231 2,179    31   28  -    45   46     8    9  + 
Aviation                                                                                                      
Administration                                                                                                
Federal           331   294            9        16  +         30    31    30  134  +     0   17   n/a   13    
Highway                                                                                                       
Administration                                                                                                
Federal             0     0          n/a       n/a           524   451    95   90  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Railroad                                                                                                      
Administration                                                                                                
National            0     0          n/a       n/a           367   263    23   20  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Highway                                                                                                       
Traffic Safety                                                                                                
Administration                                                                                                
Federal           192   199           68        29  -          0     0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Transit                                                                                                       
Administration                                                                                                
Saint Lawrence     36     0           18       n/a             0    33   n/a   20        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Seaway                                                                                                        
Development                                                                                                   
Corporation                                                                                                   
Maritime            0   124          n/a        30           155     0    30  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Administration                                                                                                
Research and       85    43           19        15  -         89    75   135   40  -    11    1     5    5  = 
Special                                                                                                       
Programs                                                                                                      
Administration                                                                                                
Federal Motor       0     0          n/a       n/a           778   823    58   31  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Carrier Safety                                                                                                
Administration                                                                                                
Bureau of          46    67            5        11  +          0     6   n/a   20        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Transportation                                                                                                
Statistics                                                                                                    

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Department of Education

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

          Simple       Complex      Expedited 
           No.          Days           No.       Days      No.   Days  
Agency      2004  2005         2004      2005 +-      2004 2005   2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
Education  1,566 1,874         0-30        35  ~       442  329  2-134   66  ~    74   16  3-21   24  ~ 

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Environmental Protection Agency

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

             Simple       Complex      Expedited 
              No.          Days           No.       Days      No.   Days 
 Component     2004  2005         2004      2005 +-      2004 2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
Headquarters  2,188 1,717           19        19  =         1   42   170   58  -     6    2    16   20  + 
Region 1 New    317   249           19        18  -         0    2    29   46  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
England                                                                                                   
Region                                                                                                    
Region 2 New  2,949 1,912           27        30  +         7    2    49   40  -     1    1     9    8  - 
Jersey, New                                                                                               
York, Puerto                                                                                              
Rico, U.S.                                                                                                
Virgin                                                                                                    
Islands and                                                                                               
7 Tribal                                                                                                  
Nations                                                                                                   
Region 3      1,748 1,699           15        13  -         0    9   n/a    4        1    0     7  n/a    
Mid-Atlantic                                                                                              
Region 4      1,034   852           21        19  -         5   71    75   41  -     1    0     6  n/a    
Southeast                                                                                                 
Region                                                                                                    
Region 5      2,011 1,920           18        18  =         2    3    70   30  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Mid-West                                                                                                  
Region                                                                                                    
Region 6        860   624           18        32  +         1    0   353  n/a        0    2   n/a  109    
South                                                                                                     
Central                                                                                                   
Region                                                                                                    
Region 7        651   767           23        27  +         0    2   n/a  166        0    0   n/a  n/a    
America's                                                                                                 
Heartland                                                                                                 
Region                                                                                                    
Region 8        387   332           13        15  +         0    0   n/a  n/a        0    0   n/a  n/a    
Mountains                                                                                                 
and Plains                                                                                                
Region                                                                                                    
Region 9        725   588           16        18  +         0   39   n/a   38        1    0     6  n/a    
Pacific                                                                                                   
Southwest                                                                                                 
Region                                                                                                    
Region 10       454   273           20        20  =         1    0    19  n/a        1    0    27  n/a    
Pacific                                                                                                   
Northwest                                                                                                 
Region                                                                                                    

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

General Services Administration

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

       Simple      Complex      Expedited 
        No.         Days           No.       Days        No.   Days 
Agency   2004 2005         2004      2005 +-       2004  2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
GSA         0    0          n/a       n/a         1,182 1,561    14   14  =     0    0   n/a  n/a    

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Department of Health and Human Services

Two tables are provided for this department, because its components report
both multitrack (simple and complex) processing and single-track
processing.

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

               Simple        Complex 
                No.           Days        No.     Days 
Component        2004   2005         2004 2005 +-       2004  2005  2004 2005 +- 
Office of the       0      0          n/a  n/a             0     0   n/a  n/a    
Secretary                                                                        
Administration    (a)      0          (a)  n/a  ~        (a)     0   (a)  n/a  ~ 
for Children                                                                     
and Families                                                                     
Administration      0      0          n/a  n/a             0     0   n/a  n/a    
on Aging                                                                         
Centers for    31,051 33,583            9   10  +        652   722    77   86  + 
Medicare &                                                                       
Medicaid                                                                         
Services                                                                         
Office of the      72    179           10   10  =        446   611    60   60  = 
Assistant                                                                        
Secretary for                                                                    
Public Health                                                                    
Agency for          0      0          n/a  n/a             0     0   n/a  n/a    
Healthcare                                                                       
Research and                                                                     
Quality                                                                          
Centers for         0      0          n/a  n/a             0     0   n/a  n/a    
Disease                                                                          
Control and                                                                      
Prevention                                                                       
Food and Drug  13,626 15,539           25   26  +      1,993 1,987   325  370  + 
Administration                                                                   
Health              0      0          n/a  n/a             0     0   n/a  n/a    
Resources and                                                                    
Services                                                                         
Administration                                                                   
Indian Health       0      0          n/a  n/a             0     0   n/a  n/a    
Services                                                                         
National            0      0          n/a  n/a             0     0   n/a  n/a    
Institutes of                                                                    
Health                                                                           
Substance           0      0          n/a  n/a             0     0   n/a  n/a    
Abuse and                                                                        
Mental Health                                                                    
Services                                                                         
Administration                                                                   

                                        

               Single          Expedited 
                 No.             Days         No.     Days 
  Component       2004    2005           2004 2005 +-      2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
Office of the    1,147     934             55   69  +         1    1     2   60  + 
Secretary                                                                          
Administration     (a)     137            (a)   40  ~       (a)    4   (a)   41  ~ 
for Children                                                                       
and Families                                                                       
Administration      13      22              5    5  =         0    0   n/a  n/a    
on Aging                                                                           
Centers for          0       0            n/a  n/a           11   42    66  158  + 
Medicare &                                                                         
Medicaid                                                                           
Services                                                                           
Office of the        0       0            n/a  n/a            0    0   n/a  n/a    
Assistant                                                                          
Secretary for                                                                      
Public Health                                                                      
Agency for          76      94             25   34  +         0    0   n/a  n/a    
Healthcare                                                                         
Research and                                                                       
Quality                                                                            
Centers for        977   1,134             36   36  =         2    2    52   52  = 
Disease                                                                            
Control and                                                                        
Prevention                                                                         
Food and Drug    2,921   1,007            113   86  -         0    2   n/a  100    
Administration                                                                     
Health             416     380             20   20  =         0    6   n/a   14    
Resources and                                                                      
Services                                                                           
Administration                                                                     
Indian Health  158,277 151,428             32   32  =         0    0   n/a  n/a    
Services                                                                           
National        10,583  13,382            182  173  -         0    0   n/a  n/a    
Institutes of                                                                      
Health                                                                             
Substance          132     206             38   45  +         0    0   n/a  n/a    
Abuse and                                                                          
Mental Health                                                                      
Services                                                                           
Administration                                                                     

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

^aComponent did not exist.

Department of Housing and Urban Development

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

             Simple       Complex      Expedited 
              No.          Days           No.       Days      No.   Days 
Component      2004  2005         2004      2005 +-      2004 2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
Headquarters  1,676   984           95        65  -       248  271   161  160  -    70   74    42   22  - 
Field         1,510 1,150           21        21  =        10   15    30   35  +    95  160    23   70  + 
Office of       354   254           55        45  -         0    0   n/a  n/a       15   15     9    9  = 
Inspector                                                                                                 
General                                                                                                   

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

       Simple      Complex      Expedited 
        No.         Days           No.       Days      No.   Days 
Agency   2004 2005         2004      2005 +-      2004 2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
NASA    1,069  938           18        19  +       454  410    33   49  +    44    3    26   15  - 

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

       Simple      Complex      Expedited 
        No.         Days           No.       Days      No.   Days 
Agency   2004 2005         2004      2005 +-      2004 2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
NRC       357  303           11        12  +        27   28    47   75  +     5   14    60   20  - 

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

National Science Foundation

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

           Single      Expedited 
            No.                  Days         No.           Days      
Agency    2004 2005           2004 2005 +-     2004 2005      2004 2005 +- 
NSF        309  266             20   14  -        0    0       n/a  n/a    

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Office of Personnel Management

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

          Single        Expedited 
           No.                    Days         No.           Days      
Agency   2004   2005           2004 2005 +-     2004 2005      2004 2005 +- 
OPM     9,310 10,900              9   14  +        0    2       n/a    1    

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Small Business Administration

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

          Single       Expedited 
           No.                   Days         No.           Days      
Agency   2004  2005           2004 2005 +-     2004 2005      2004 2005 +- 
SBA     1,927 3,737              5    7  +        0    0       n/a  n/a    

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Social Security Administration

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

           Simple        Complex  
             No.           Days         No.     Days 
Agency     2004  2005           2004 2005 +-      2004  2005  2004 2005 +- 
SSA         397   364             19   15  -       882 1,014    37   39  + 

           Single         Expedited 
             No.            Days         No.     Days 
Agency     2004   2005           2004 2005 +-      2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
SSA       1,321  1,555             14   10  -         0   31   n/a   17    

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Note: The tables exclude SSA's category of "simple requests handled by
non-FOIA staff" and "simple request for Social Security number
applications and other Office of Earnings Operations records." The
category SSA labels "fast track" was reported under "single track."

Department of State

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

       Simple       Complex      Expedited 
        No.          Days           No.       Days        No.   Days 
Agency   2004  2005         2004      2005 +-       2004  2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
State   1,236 1,647            6        14  +      3,710 2,216   209  142  -    17    7   184  136  - 

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Department of the Treasury

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

               Simple       Complex      Expedited 
                No.          Days           No.       Days         No.    Days 
Component        2004  2005         2004      2005 +-        2004   2005  2004 2005 +-  2004 2005  2004 2005 +- 
The               332   307            2         2  =         782    790   172  251  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Departmental                                                                                                    
Offices                                                                                                         
Alcohol and         0   168          n/a        86            201     17    78   93  +     0    1   n/a    1    
Tobacco Tax                                                                                                     
and Trade                                                                                                       
Bureau                                                                                                          
Office of the     322 4,635           10         2  -       8,030    179    50   73  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Comptroller of                                                                                                  
the Currency                                                                                                    
Bureau of          69    76            4         3  -          44     12    60   31  -     1    0     5  n/a    
Engraving and                                                                                                   
Printing                                                                                                        
Financial           0     0          n/a       n/a            529    351     7   10  +     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Management                                                                                                      
Service                                                                                                         
Internal            0     0          n/a       n/a         51,985 42,533    21   21  =     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Revenue                                                                                                         
Service                                                                                                         
United States       0     0          n/a       n/a             67    316    15   15  =     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Mint                                                                                                            
Bureau of the       0     0          n/a       n/a             91     90     4    3  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Public Debt                                                                                                     
Office of           0     0          n/a       n/a          1,827  4,003    15   12  -     2    0   n/a  n/a    
Thrift                                                                                                          
Supervision                                                                                                     
Treasury            0   208          n/a         4            256    161   172   30  -     0    0    10  n/a    
Inspector                                                                                                       
General for                                                                                                     
Tax                                                                                                             
Administration                                                                                                  
Financial           0    18          n/a         6             32    122    99   95  -     0    0   n/a  n/a    
Crimes                                                                                                          
Enforcement                                                                                                     
Network                                                                                                         

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

Department of Veterans Affairs

The department reports all processing in one track, but it refers to this
track as complex, rather than single track.

No. = number of requests processed; Days = median days to process; +- =
change from 2004 to 2005

                                        

                    Complex               Expedited 
                      No.                   Days           No.     Days 
    Component            2004        2005             2004 2005 +-          2004     2005  2004 2005 +- 
Acquisition &           376**       289**              4**  2.5  -           0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Material                                                                                                
Management                                                                                              
Administration            0**     1,463**              n/a    4              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Board of Contract         0**         0**              n/a  n/a              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Appeals                                                                                                 
Board of Veterans     1,006**     1,049**             49**   19  -           0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Appeals                                                                                                 
Congressional &           0**         (a)              n/a  (a)  ~           0**      (a)   n/a  (a)  ~ 
Legislative                                                                                             
Affairs                                                                                                 
Diversity                 0**         0**              n/a  n/a              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Management &                                                                                            
Equal Employment                                                                                        
Opportunity                                                                                             
General Counsel          67**        65**             35**   15  -           0**      2**   n/a   10    
Human Resources          45**         1**           31.5**    4  -           0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Management                                                                                              
Inspector               347**       287**             10**   16  +           0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
General                                                                                                 
Information               0**         0**              n/a  n/a              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Technology                                                                                              
Support Service                                                                                         
Office of                 0**         0**              n/a  n/a              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Management                                                                                              
National Cemetery         0**        19**              n/a   15             16**      0**    18  n/a    
Administration                                                                                          
Office of the             0**         0**              n/a  n/a              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Assistant                                                                                               
Secretary for                                                                                           
Human Resources &                                                                                       
Administration                                                                                          
Office of the             0**         0**              n/a  n/a              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Assistant                                                                                               
Secretary for                                                                                           
Public &                                                                                                
Intergovernmental                                                                                       
Affairs                                                                                                 
Office of the             0**         8**              n/a    1             16**      0**   1**  n/a    
Deputy Assistant                                                                                        
Secretary for                                                                                           
Budget                                                                                                  
Office of the             0**        10**              n/a    1              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Deputy Assistant                                                                                        
Secretary for                                                                                           
Intergovernmental                                                                                       
Affairs                                                                                                 
Office of                58**        63**             15** 11.5  -           0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Finance                                                                                                 
Office of                53**        72**           11.5**   51  +           0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Information &                                                                                           
Technology                                                                                              
Office of                16**        12**              5**   10  +           0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Resolution                                                                                              
Management                                                                                              
Office of Small &         0**         1**              n/a    1              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Disadvantaged                                                                                           
Business                                                                                                
Utilization                                                                                             
Policy and                0**         0**              n/a  n/a              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Planning                                                                                                
Public Affairs            0**         0**              n/a  n/a              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Security & Law            0**         (a)              n/a  (a)  ~           0**      (a)   n/a  (a)  ~ 
Enforcement                                                                                             
Office of the            16**         6**             45**   60  +           0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Secretary                                                                                               
Veterans Benefits    93,296**    83,332**             15** 15.5  +         384**     88**   5**  4.5  - 
Administration                                                                                          
Veterans Canteen          0**         0**              n/a  n/a              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Service                                                                                                 
Veterans Health   1,699,079** 1,814,837**              4**    1  -      20,730** 13,409**   1**    1  = 
Administration                                                                                          
White House               0**         0**              n/a  n/a              0**      0**   n/a  n/a    
Liaison                                                                                                 

+ increase - decrease = no change ~ other change (change in reporting, new
component, etc.)

Sources: Annual FOIA report, GAO analysis.

^aComponent did not exist.

Appendix XI
GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contact

Linda D. Koontz, (202) 512-6240 or [email protected]

Staff Acknowledgments

In addition to the contact named above, key contributions to this report
were made by Barbara Collier, Acting Assistant Director; Alan Stapleton,
Assistant Director; James Ashley, Marisol Cruz; Wilfred Holloway; Vernetta
Marquis; David Plocher; Kelly Shaw; Shawn Ward; and Elizabeth Zhao.

(310766)

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-441 .

To view the full product, including the scope
and methodology, click on the link above.

For more information, contact Linda Koontz at (202) 512-6240 or
[email protected].

Highlights of [73]GAO-07-441 , a report to congressional requesters

March 2007

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

Processing Trends Show Importance of Improvement Plans

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes that federal agencies
must provide access to their information, enabling the public to learn
about government operations and decisions. To help ensure proper
implementation, the act requires that agencies report annually to the
Attorney General, giving specific information about their FOIA operations,
such as numbers of requests received and processed and median processing
times. Also, a recent Executive Order directs agencies to develop plans to
improve FOIA operations, including decreasing backlog.

For this study, GAO was asked to examine the status and trends of FOIA
processing at 25 major agencies as reflected in annual reports, as well as
the extent to which improvement plans contain the elements emphasized by
the Executive Order. To do so, GAO analyzed the 25 agencies' annual
reports and improvement plans.

[74]What GAO Recommends

GAO suggests that the Congress consider requiring annual reports to
provide additional statistics, including arithmetic means. GAO also makes
recommendations to strengthen selected improvement plans, among other
things. The agencies reviewed generally agreed with the draft report,
except that the Treasury partially disagreed with GAO's assessment and
associated recommendation. GAO continues to support its assessment and
recommendation.

Based on data in annual reports from 2002 to 2005, the public continued to
submit more requests for information from the federal government through
FOIA. Despite increasing the numbers of requests processed, many agencies
did not keep pace with the volume of requests that they received. As a
result, the number of pending requests carried over from year to year has
been steadily increasing (see fig.). Agency reports also show great
variations in the median times to process requests (less than 10 days for
some agency components to more than 100 days at others). However, the
ability to determine trends in processing times is limited by the form in
which these times are reported: that is, in medians only, without averages
(that is, arithmetical means) or ranges. Although medians have the
advantage of providing representative numbers that are not skewed by a few
outliers, it is not statistically possible to combine several medians to
develop broader generalizations (as can be done with arithmetical means).
This limitation on aggregating data impedes the development of broader
pictures of FOIA operations, which could be useful in monitoring efforts
to improve processing and reduce the increasing backlog of requests, as
intended by the Executive Order.

The improvement plans submitted by the 25 agencies mostly included goals
and timetables addressing the four areas of improvement emphasized by the
Executive Order: eliminating or reducing any backlog of FOIA requests;
increasing reliance on dissemination of records that can be made available
to the public without the need for a FOIA request, such as through posting
on Web sites; improving communications with requesters about the status of
their requests; and increasing public awareness of FOIA processing. Most
of the plans (20 of 25) provided goals and timetables in all four areas;
some agencies omitted goals in areas where they considered they were
already strong. Although details of a few plans could be improved, all the
plans focus on making measurable improvements and form a reasonable basis
for carrying out the goals of the Executive Order.

Total FOIA Requests Pending at End of Year, 2002-2005

References

Visible links
  64. http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/index.html
  65. http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/04_6.html.
  66. http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/agency_improvement.html.
  73. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-441
*** End of document. ***