Blogs
Launching the Inaugural ‘State of FOIA’ Survey
October 10, 2024 / #Open Government, #FOIA
By: Howard Langsam, CEO of OPEXUS
How do FOIA Officers Feel About FOIA?
Top highlights:
- Request complexity is the #1 challenge.
- Nearly 80% of respondents say backlog reduction is their top priority in the next 12 months.
- Only 38% of respondents are satisfied with the resources and processes available to manage workloads.
- Nearly 75% of respondents believe software can help facilitate collaboration to improve efficiency.
- The top two solutions for solving FOIA challenges are 1. increased staffing and 2. greater investment in technology training.
- 93% of respondents said they believe AI can help with reviewing and sorting requests and data.
Open government is at an inflection point.
Requests for public records are at an all-time high, growing both in volume and complexity. Meanwhile, government data is expanding rapidly. This combination—alongside funding and staffing shortages in public records offices—is straining the system. Today, the federal backlog of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests exceeds a record 200,000 cases.1
Many policy experts and advocates have debated how to improve FOIA. But what do the FOIA officers on the frontlines think?
At OPEXUS, we work directly with public sector employees every day who are working to make government function better. Our software tools are designed to make their jobs more efficient, including our FOIAXpress tool used by more than 150 federal agencies. Our team regularly hosts a FOIA Officers Roundtable, bringing together dozens of officers to build community, share best practices, and collectively impact the effectiveness of FOIA programs.
In that spirit, we launched our first-ever ‘2024 State of FOIA’ survey engaging open records professionals across federal, state and local levels to understand their challenges and opportunities for improvement.
Our findings reveal that while FOIA workers’ top priority is keeping up with requests and reducing backlogs, they are dissatisfied with the current resources and processes available to them in order to make that happen. As AI makes headway, FOIA officers surveyed are optimistic about the potential impact of machine learning and other technologies could have to enhance FOIA efficiency. Three-quarters believe updated software would improve collaboration among stakeholders, and nearly all—93%—see a clear role for AI in reviewing and sorting requests.
While investment in technology is crucial, workers also emphasize the need for better support, with a spotlight on training. It’s not enough to simply introduce AI; officers want to thoroughly understand the best ways to use it.
Furthermore, to truly improve FOIA program effectiveness, leaders need to step up. Managing team members and cases won’t be enough. The best FOIA leaders understand the full range of challenges facing their programs and take bold steps—leveraging data, best practices, and investing in training and modern tools that are tailored to FOIA professionals’ workflows. We hope this report provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing public records management workers and offers a path to meaningful improvements.
1 Government Accountability Office, “FOIA Backlogs Hinder Government Transparency and Accountability,” March 14, 2024
