FOIA at 60:

The Capacity Crisis Behind the Backlog and What AI Should Be Asked to Do About It

FOIA turns 60 this year. Request volume has nearly doubled in three years, and the workforce processing those requests shrank by 14 percent last year alone. Agencies are already turning to AI to close that gap.
This paper is a diagnosis of that gap, built on the actual data behind the backlog, the processing times, and the appeals, and an honest look at where AI actually helps close it. It's not a pitch for AI or a warning against it. It's where the practitioners running these programs have drawn a hard line around what still has to be a person's call.

What's inside the white paper:

• What the data actually shows from FY2022 to FY2025: request volume, staffing, backlog, and cost, and where the numbers move faster than the headlines suggest
• The Decision Line: a practical standard for what AI can carry versus what a person must decide, mapped across all six phases of a request's life, from intake through publication
• Three concrete requirements for making human accountability auditable, not just claimed