In addition to providing their annual reports to the Attorney  General, agencies are to make them available to the public in  electronic form. 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). Thus, although  using medians provides representative numbers that are not skewed  by a few outliers, they cannot be summed. 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. 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 some cases, agencies did not set goals for a given area  because they determined that they were already strong in that area. 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. Annual Reporting and Selected Improvement Plans Could Be Further Enhanced

The annual FOIA reports continue to provide valuable information  about citizens’ use of this important tool for obtaining information  about government operation and decisions. Given that  processing times are an important gauge of government  responsiveness to citizen inquiries, this limitation 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. Nonetheless, all the plans show a  commendable focus on making measurable improvements and form  a reasonable basis for carrying out the order’s goals. Attachment I: Scope and Methodology

For the draft report on which this testimony is based, we gauged  agencies’ progress in processing requests by analyzing 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. 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.
Why GAO Did This Study

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes that federal agencies must provide the public with access to government information, enabling them to learn about government operations and decisions. To help ensure proper implementation, the act requires that agencies annually report specific information about their FOIA operations, such as numbers of requests received and processed and median processing times. In addition, a recent Executive Order directs agencies to develop plans to improve their FOIA operations, including decreasing backlogs. GAO was asked to testify on the results of its study on FOIA processing and agencies' improvement plans. The draft report on the study is currently out for comment at the agencies involved (and is thus subject to change). For the study, GAO reviewed 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.

What GAO Found

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. 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 (for example, one agency did not explicitly address areas of improvement other than backlog), all the plans focus on making measurable improvements and form a reasonable basis for carrying out the goals of the Executive Order.