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Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

The Ten Oldest Pending FOIA Requests

The National Security Archive
Freedom of Information Act Audit

 
Press Release
Executive Summary
The Ten Oldest FOIA Requests in the Federal Government
Chart - Agency Response Times
Table - Oldest Outstanding FOIA Requests
Methodology
Findings Regarding The Ten Oldest FOIA Requests and FOIA Backlogs
Summary Discussion of Individual Agencies
Update on Phase One: The Ashcroft Memorandum
FOIA Audit Phase One: The Ashcroft Memo
 

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DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS (VET)
UNABLE TO DETERMINE AGENCY BACKLOG
Recordkeeping Issues - At the request of VET, the Archive limited the FOIA request to the Central Office at the Department and limited the search of documents to only those older than 30 days. The VA sent an acknowledgment letter on March 13, 2003, which recognized the limited search and also advised that the request was being forwarded to VET components.
Ten Oldest - Nothing yet received.
Workload Statistics - VET's reported statistics from 1998 through 2002 indicate that the agency has received an increasing number of FOIA requests (up 611.22% from 210,371 in 1998 to 1,496,191 in 2002). The number processed each year also has increased (up 613.67% from 208,740 processed in 1998 to 1,489,724 processed in 2002). VET's processing rate per year -- a comparison of the number of requests processed to the number received - increased from 99.22% in 1998 to 99.57% in 2002.
Backlog Statistics - VET's backlog of pending FOIA requests has increased (from 12,361 FOIA requests pending at the end of 1998 to 42,666 FOIA requests pending at the end of 2002). VET's backlog as a percentage of FOIA requests processed each year has decreased from 5.92% in 1998 to 2.86% in 2002. Its backlog rate per year -- a comparison of the number of requests pending at the end of the year to the number received during that year -- has decreased from 10.23% in 1998 to 2.85% in 2002.
Processing Time - VET reports that its median days to process has ranged from 10-25 days over the 1998-2002 period. The median days that backlogged requests have been pending has ranged from 3-36 days in 2002. Expedited requests have a median processing time range of 2-3 days over the 1998-2001 time period, with a range of 1-7 reported for 2002.

 

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