The Defense Health Agency says it is so backlogged with Freedom of Information Act requests that it cannot meet the law’s 20-day deadline.
In an email sent August 26 to The Dallas Express, DHA acknowledged receiving a request for records. However, the FOIA agent said the request was number 950 out of 951 open cases and estimated a completion date of October 8, 2025 — roughly three weeks after the statutory deadline.
“We regret the substantial delay in processing requests,” DHA’s FOIA analyst wrote in the interim response.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), passed in 1967, states that “all federal agencies are required to respond to a FOIA request within 20 business days, unless there are ‘unusual circumstances,'” per the Department of Justice website. The unusual circumstances include situations where it will take an exceptional amount of time to collect records from field offices, requests for large amounts of documents, or those that require consultation with another agency.
Delays are now common, and transparency advocates warn that mounting backlogs weaken the law’s role as a tool for public oversight of federal agencies.
Federal News Network has reported that FOIA offices across the government are chronically underfunded and understaffed, despite receiving a record 900,000 requests in fiscal 2022.
“FOIA offices have traditionally been understaffed and underbudgeted,” Marshall Hamilton, an executive at Tyler Technologies, told the outlet. He added that shortages are “a big reason why these [FOIA] backlogs are increasing governmentwide.”
The Defense Health Agency manages health care delivery for 9.5 million beneficiaries worldwide through TRICARE and serves as a medical combat support agency to the Army, Navy, and Air Force, according to the agency website. Its FOIA office is based in Falls Church, Virginia, and processes requests for multiple subcomponents, including Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System.
The agency’s handling of FOIA requests echoes similar struggles across the federal government.
On July 8, the Federal Communications Commission agreed to expedite the processing of an earlier records request from The Dallas Express due to a “compelling need” to inform the public about government affairs. Seven weeks later, the special government process intended to produce records quickly has still not produced any documents.
The Dallas Express recently reported that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services continues to cite COVID-19 as a reason for reduced FOIA capacity, despite the pandemic emergency ending more than two years ago. In another case, the Air Force blew past multiple deadlines for records regarding water contamination at Dyess Air Force Base before ultimately stating that no responsive documents existed.
Hamilton said agencies are increasingly turning to automation and artificial intelligence to manage FOIA case loads, describing the tools as “force multipliers” that can speed reviews and balance workloads among analysts. But without more staff and resources, watchdogs argue, the law’s guarantees of timely public access remain out of reach.