FOIA Appeals Backlog Advisory Opinion

On February 4, 2025, Director Allen issued an Advisory Opinion #OOG-2024-006_AO, concerning the backlog of administrative appeals under D.C. FOIA. The statute currently allots the MOLC only ten business days (from initial submission) to decide appeals, and at the end of Fiscal Year 2024, over 1, 000 decisions were overdue for publication.

The Director first provides a summary of her Advisory Opinion #OOG-2022-004_AO dated July 29, 2022, which addressed the MOLC’s backlog of administrative appeals, followed by recognition of the MOLC’s backlog at the time of submission of the Request which led to this Advisory Opinion (#OOG-2024-006_AO), and the clearing of the MOLC’s backlog of appeal decisions in January 2025.

As a remedy, the Director strongly recommends amending legislation to enlarge the currently inadequate processing time of administrative appeals. In addition, Director Allen recommends that “the Office of Open Government should officially serve as the “DC FOIA Ombudsman,” like the federal government’s Office of Government Information Services (OGIS).” The Director recognizes that implementation of the Ombudsman program would require changes to BEGA’s enabling statute and D.C. FOIA.

Finally, similarly to Advisory Opinion #OOG-2022-004_AO, the Director concludes that “The MOLC should ensure that, at the same time that an opinion is signed and release[d] to the requester(s) and custodian(s), it affirmatively posts the opinion for public viewing.”