U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Office of Legal Policy
April 30, 1985
The Speaker
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515Dear Mr. Speaker:
Enclosed is a copy of the Department of Justice's 1984 annual report on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) activities. This report covers the FOIA activities of all Department of Justice organizations. Because in 1984 the Department, as a matter of administrative discretion, processed virtually all requests received under the Privacy Act of 1974 (requests by individuals for access to records relating to themselves) under the FOIA as well as under the Privacy Act, the enclosed report covers all access requests regardless of the Act cited by the requester.
A comparison of the report with our 1983 report shows that the Department received 71 more FOIA requests in 1984, but received 3,761 fewer Privacy Act requests than in 1983, for a total decrease of 3,690 requests. Consequently, the backlog of Privacy Act unprocessed requests decreased by 1,980 requests, and the FOIA backlog was reduced by 257 requests. Reported costs increased by only 0.8% in 1984.
Calendar year 1984 costs are reported at page 18 of the report. This cost table primarily reflects those costs incurred in "processing" access requests. Nevertheless, to the extent that such cost figures are available or can be estimated, certain ancillary costs have been footnoted. Not included at all, however, are significant costs to the Department incurred in litigating FOIA issues for the United States Government.
While administration of the FOIA continues to demand considerable agency resources both in terms of time and money, the Department will continue to make a diligent effort to comply fully. At the same time, however, we are continuing our efforts to obtain FOIA amendments which we believe to be necessary to reduce the administrative burden on the entire executive branch. We are pleased that the Senate took a major step toward this last year in passing a comprehensive FOIA reform bill (S. 774, reintroduced as S. 150 in this Congress), and we look forward to timely consideration of that bill in this Congress.
Sincerely,
James M. Spears
Acting Assistant Attorney General
Go to: Table of Contents // DOJ FOIA Page // Justice Department Home Page