FOIA Modernization: Why Manual Processes Are Costing Government Agencies More Than Time

According to the Department of Justice Office of Information Policy (OIP), federal agencies received 1,501,432 FOIA requests in FY 2024, representing a 25.15% increase over FY 2023. This marks the second consecutive year of record-breaking FOIA demand, with FY 2023 having already surpassed one million requests for the first time in history.

The Brechner Center for Freedom of Information analyzed the latest data and found alarming trends across the board:

• Backlog explosion: 267,056 backlogged requests at the end of FY 2024, a 33% increase from 200,843 in FY 2023
• Lower approval rates: Only 12% of requests were fully granted, an all-time low (down from 16% in FY 2023 and 38% in 2010)
• Skyrocketing costs: $723 million in processing costs (22% increase) and $54 million in litigation defense costs (10% increase)

Municipal FOIA officers often manage hundreds of requests annually with minimal staff, no dedicated technology, and increasing public expectations for transparency. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that agencies face "persistent challenges processing requests within required time frames" despite the 20-business-day statutory requirement. This isn’t just a resource problem; it's a technology gap. Traditional annual FOIA workflows simply can’t scale to meet today’s demand.

What "FOIA Modernization" Actually Means

The teams are using 2000s-era workflows to manage 2020s-era data volumes and transparency expectations, searching manually through email systems that contain millions of messages, reviewing PDFs one page at a time for PII that AI can detect in seconds. The FOIA Modernization is about rethinking how government agencies handle public record requests with the new technology, without compromising the security of information through:

1. Automated Request Intake & Tracking

• Automated acknowledgment emails and status updates (reducing "where's my request?" calls by 40%+)
• Real-time dashboards showing request status, backlogs, and approaching deadlines for leadership visibility

2. AI-Powered Document Review

• Intelligent search across multiple data sources, such as email, SharePoint, and file shares, without moving data.
• Entity extraction to identify names, dates, organizations, locations, and sensitive information
• Sentiment analysis to flag potentially sensitive communications for human review

3. Unified Case Management

• Single platform for all request types: FOIA, state public records laws, litigation holds, compliance investigations
• Collaboration tools for multi-department reviews (no more email version control nightmares)
• Complete audit trails showing every access, search, decision, and redaction for litigation defense

Modern FOIA doesn't mean that AI replaces human judgment; it’s about amplifying human productivity, handling repetitive and reduced manual work. It’s about reducing compliance risk, improving citizen trust with transparency and responsiveness, and saving costs.

Manual FOIA workflows worked when request volumes were low, staff retention was high, and citizens were patient. That era is over. The agencies that modernize now will respond faster, serve citizens better, defend themselves more effectively in litigation, and retain their best staff.

The question isn't whether to modernize FOIA operations. It's whether to start today or wait until next year's report shows another 25% increase in requests, another 33% increase in backlogs, and another 22% increase in costs.

Schedule a demo using real government data. See the platform in action with your request types and get a tailored walkthrough with our team.