"A fast-growing backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests could both challenge and help justify new Interior Department measures billed as a means to increase efficiency and improve transparency.
The new rules made public Friday arrive as Interior's backlog of FOIA requests exceeds 4,000, according to the department's latest report. The backlog totaled 1,364 in January 2017, the start of the Trump administration (E&E News PM, Oct. 25).
The near-tripling in Interior's FOIA backlog reflects, in part, a jump in the number of requests from reporters, advocates and others. The department fielded 1,551 FOIA requests in the first quarter of fiscal 2017; that increased to 2,046 in the first quarter of fiscal 2019.
"The changes to the regulations are just one part of a broader plan to improve FOIA processing at the Department of the Interior," Deputy Chief FOIA Officer Rachel Spector said Friday, adding that "these changes will facilitate greater efficiency ... and enable the Department to modernize its technology in ways that will serve the requester community.""
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