Federal FOIA Requests Hit Record 1.7 Million as Backlog Rises 27%
Federal agencies received a record 1,707,197 Freedom of Information Act requests in fiscal year 2025, but the government’s unresolved queue grew faster than its processing capacity.
The Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy published the government-wide figures on July 2, 2026. Agencies processed 1,635,055 requests during the fiscal year, an increase of nearly 9% and a record high. Yet the backlog reached 339,671 requests at the end of FY2025, up 27% from FY2024.
The figures describe a system handling more requests than ever while leaving more cases pending. For people seeking federal records, that can mean longer waits for documents used in journalism, litigation, research, oversight and personal matters.
Demand rose faster than processing
Federal agencies received 205,765 more requests than in FY2024, a 13.7% increase. The report’s backlog count includes requests that remained pending beyond the statutory 20-working-day processing period or, when unusual circumstances applied, beyond an extension of up to 30 working days.
That designation does not necessarily mean an agency denied access. It means the request remained unresolved under the report’s timing definition. Government-wide totals also include requests carried over from earlier fiscal years, so the 1,635,055 processed cases should not be read as a measure of how many FY2025 requests were fully resolved.
The report also cautions against treating every processed request as a substantive records release. In FY2025, 49.56% of processed requests were closed for procedural or administrative reasons. Of the requests that received substantive exemption-review decisions, 93.72% resulted in either a full or partial release.
Appeals backlog more than doubled
Administrative appeals added another pressure point. Agencies received 32,059 appeals in FY2025, up 59.38% from the prior year, and processed 23,108, an increase of 24.4%. The appeals backlog rose 116.5% to 11,652.
Other timing measures show a mixed picture. The report said 91% of expedited-processing determinations were made within 10 calendar days. At the same time, the average processing time for simple-track requests was 48.96 days among the agencies that reported that measure, up from 44 days in FY2024.
A few agencies drive much of the total
Government-wide averages can hide significant differences among agencies. The five agencies receiving the most requests accounted for 84% of all FY2025 demand, with the Department of Homeland Security alone accounting for 60%.
Those five agencies were DHS, the Department of Justice, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of War and the Department of Health and Human Services. Their concentration matters when readers compare agencies: a large department handling high-volume requests can affect national totals differently from a smaller agency handling fewer but more complex records requests.
Foia provides agency-level data on requests received and processed, backlogs, oldest pending cases and other measures.
Staffing is part of the capacity picture
The National Archives’ Office of Government Information Services reported a concurrent staffing and backlog trend across 25 major agencies: a 16% decline in full-time FOIA staff alongside a 27% increase in backlogs. The comparison covers 15 Cabinet-level departments and 10 independent agencies, not every federal entity subject to FOIA.
That finding provides context, but it does not establish that staffing reductions caused every agency’s result. The Justice Department has cited several operational pressures, including higher request volume, greater complexity, retirements, hiring constraints and technology challenges.
In its own FY2026 Chief FOIA Officer Report covering FY2025 performance, DOJ said its request backlog rose from 21,567 to 29,308. The department also reported responding to 147,588 FOIA requests during FY2025 and described backlog-reduction efforts involving personnel, technology, process changes and training.
What requesters can do
People waiting on a federal records request can check the agency’s status information and ask for an estimated completion date. If access is denied or records are withheld, the requester can file an administrative appeal. The Office of Government Information Services also assists with disputes and communication problems, although it cannot compel an agency to release records.
The FY2025 numbers show a federal disclosure system under sustained demand: processing reached a record level, but unresolved requests and appeals expanded more quickly. The totals do not reveal the complexity of each case, the exemptions applied, litigation involving particular requests or the outcome for any individual requester. For that reason, agency-level comparisons remain essential when assessing how quickly the public can obtain federal records.
Sources
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