The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) acknowledged records requests in an average of two weeks after receipt in fiscal year (FY) 2024, but veterans seeking their own records from the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) waited an average of five months to receive records. That is one of 10 findings in OGIS’s latest agency compliance assessment, which recommends 15 actions VA can take to improve its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program.
It is important to note that the congressionally mandated assessment is a snapshot in time and relies on FY 2024 data, the most recent for which VA FOIA data was reported to the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Information Policy. Congress mandated in the Cleland-Dole Act, included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, that VA reduce its FOIA backlog and that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs request that OGIS assess VA FOIA compliance. The then-VA Secretary requested the assessment in 2023 and OGIS, which is statutorily mandated with reviewing agency compliance and identifying procedures and methods for improving FOIA compliance (5 U.S.C. § 552(h)(2)), launched its review in 2024.
The final report of our independent and systemic assessment is the 15th agency FOIA review conducted by OGIS in accordance with the FOIA statute and Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards. To learn more about the VA FOIA program and our recommendations, please download the report. We will follow up with the VA to learn what steps it has taken in response to our recommendations.
Previous OGIS compliance reports are available at: https://www.archives.gov/ogis/foia-compliance-program/agency-compliance-reports. And a table of all OGIS recommendations made as a result of agency assessments is available here.
If you are an agency FOIA professional or official interested in having OGIS assess your FOIA program or any aspect of it, please contact us at ogis@nara.gov so we can add you to our FY 2026 calendar.
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