At a glance
The Freedom of Information Act is failing 60 years after passage. Agencies average 289 days to respond versus a 20-day legal limit, reject over 12% of requests outright, and one agency's backlog jumped 83% in a year.
Federal agencies are now averaging 289 days to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests, versus the 20-day legal requirement. On top of the delay, agencies are rejecting outright over 12% of requests without releasing documents. One agency saw its backlog jump 83% in a single year. FOIA was designed to give the public access to government documents; it's the main tool for journalists, lawyers, and citizens to see what their government is actually doing.
A 289-day response time is effectively no response at all for breaking news or urgent accountability questions. By the time you get the documents, the story is cold. A high rejection rate means agencies are claiming exemptions—often legitimately, sometimes not. But when you combine long delays with high rejections, you get a system that's basically broken. The 83% spike in one agency's backlog suggests the problem isn't just underinvestment; it's collapse. Agencies are drowning in requests they can't process.
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