Washington Post investigation finds Trump administration cuts to FOIA staff devastated the public’s rights to know and access public records
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Alexander Howard
Mar 14, 2026, 12:22:23 PMMar 14
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Hi all —
I asked the US FOIA Advisory Committee last March if and how cuts to FOIA staff were affecting how agencies could respond. No one responded.
I asked the Chief FOIA Officers Council the same question, in December.
No one answered. Neither OGIS or OIP followed up.
I asked again, last week, & again received no answer, or follow-up.
Thanks to former Committee member Nate Jones and the Washington Post, we now know the answer “is a resounding yes” as we head into Sunshine Week:
“Attorneys for at least 13 agencies and departments have explicitly stated in 26 FOIA lawsuits that the downsizings were the reasons for failures to meet FOIA deadlines, according to a Washington Post review of 339 active FOIA lawsuits.”
“The true number of requests mired in federal staffing cuts, however, is almost certainly higher: The Post’s count does not include the hundreds of cases in which officials gave no specific reason in court for the delay.”
Jones found “jaw-dropping admissions from some agencies about how the FOIA process had broken down.”
Government transparency is a lot like clean water and clean air: people don’t miss it until the groundwater is polluted, the city water is unsafe, or smog and wildfires make breathing unhealthy.
But for years now, too many watchdog organizations & people who defend it in the United States have been defunded, cut, ignored, or burned out and left.
Foundations, philanthropists, and universities need to step up and support the next generation of advocates, activists, and nonprofits, NOW, or we will see our government information ecosystems become further polluted, denying accountability for corruption, fraud, waste, and war crimes in the years to come.
But for years now, too many watchdog organizations & people who defend it in the United States have been defunded, cut, ignored, or burned out and left.
Foundations, philanthropists, and universities need to step up and support the next generation of advocates, activists, and nonprofits, NOW, or we will see our government information ecosystems become further polluted, denying accountability for corruption, fraud, waste, and war crimes in the years to come.
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