2023 FOIA Litigation and Compliance Report Now Available

Earlier this month, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) posted the Department’s 2023 FOIA Litigation and Compliance Report.  In accordance with the FOIA, each year the Department of Justice submits to Congress and the President a report detailing OIP’s efforts to encourage agency compliance with the FOIA.  The report highlights the many ways that OIP works to provide guidance, trainings, and counseling to agencies to assist them in their FOIA administration and to promote agency accountability.  The report also contains a list of all FOIA litigation cases received and decided in the prior calendar year. 

This year's report highlights new policy guidance issued by OIP such as guidance on applying a presumption of openness and the foreseeable harm standard, guidance on standard operating procedures for FOIA offices, and guidance on appropriate content for the Chief FOIA Officer reports.  As detailed in the 2023 Report, OIP fielded 800 direct one-on-one counseling calls via OIP’s FOIA Counselor Line, which is an increase of more than 100 counseling calls compared to last year.  OIP also hosted and facilitated numerous training programs and briefings on the FOIA and offered training to over 7,000 registered attendees.  The Report also summarizes the recently updated chapters to the DOJ Guide to the FOIA, searchable summaries of court decisions, and information about FOIA news and events published in the FOIA Post blog.

The 2023 Report also details OIP’s work in continuing to maintain and enhance the National FOIA Portal on FOIA.gov that allows the public to submit a request to any Federal agency from a single site.  In 2023, OIP launched a new FOIA Search Tool on FOIA.gov that utilizes machine learning to help members of the public quickly and accurately locate commonly requested records.  This is the beginning of what will be a multi-phase project.  As use of the search tool increases, OIP will refine the tool to best serve the public.   

Along with the narrative portion of the report, every year OIP compiles charts listing the FOIA litigation cases received and decided during the reporting year.  As in previous years, OIP again provides these charts in both PDF and open (CSV) formats.

OIP invites both agencies and the public to review its 2023 Litigation and Compliance Report to learn more about all our efforts to encourage agency compliance with the FOIA.  OIP looks forward to building on these efforts as we continue to work with agencies and the public to improve the overall administration of the FOIA in the years ahead.