FOIA Facts: The Return of the Backlog
From LLRX:
Like a boomerang, FOIA backlogs are back! FOIA backlogs are the number of pending requests at an agency at any one point in time. Ok, some may argue that they never really went away. However, many agencies greatly reduced the number of cases in their FOIA backlogs during the late 1990s and earlier this decade. For instance, my old employer, the FBI, reduced its backlog from over 16,000 pending FOIA requests in 1996 to just over 2,000 in early 2002. It has now increased, even though I’m not sure of the exact number currently.There are a number of reasons for this increase in backlog numbers. None of them are good, and all point to either inattention by upper level management to effective supervision of their FOIA programs, or intentional neglect of their FOIA programs.