Standard electronic processing could ease FOIA backlog

A lack of standard electronic processing systems is contributing to a backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests at federal agencies, according to a report released on Monday by a coalition of media groups.

Some agencies have proprietary software to process and respond to requests for public documents, "but each is on its own, which is a problem," said Rick Blum, coordinator for the Sunshine in Government Initiative, which published the report. He said Mexico successfully implemented a governmentwide electronic processing system that could serve as an example.

The report comes as agencies are facing a pileup of inquiries and dwindling staffs. In 2008, 25 federal agencies amassed a backlog of 130,359 cases, representing 33 percent of the 398,607 FOIA requests processed that year, the report stated. The backlog was greater in 2007 (at 149,890 requests), but it remained steady when viewed as a percentage of inquiries processed. Meanwhile, FOIA staff fell from 3,438 in 2007 to 2,653 in 2008.

A March policy change is likely to increase the workload further. Building on a presidential directive issued on President Obama's first full day in office, Attorney General Eric Holder instructed the heads of executive branch agencies to apply a presumption of openness when fielding FOIA requests. The proclamation rescinds 2001 guidelines that agencies were to withhold documents if any argument could be made to do so.

In addition to reducing the time and resources expended on FOIA processing, a standard software application could help agencies apply the Obama administration's policies appropriately, Blum said.

"If agencies had a good suite of software, they could just push a button," he said. "That's an investment that would pay off by helping to alleviate a lot of the problems of backlogs and [response times] that stretch for multiple years."