UNREDACTED: The National Security Archive Blog

The government is shut down – and so is the public’s right to know. As in previous shutdowns, FOIA offices are being adversely affected by the government’s lapse in funding, nonessential FOIA staff have been furloughed, and the smattering of FOIA shops that are still sending out correspondence will probably be closed within days or weeks as the shutdown continues. Even at the judicial level, FOIA is being impacted by the stay on court deadlines at the D.C. District Court, which National Security Archive alum Lauren Harper notes “handles the lion’s share of FOIA” lawsuits.

So, what does the government spending lapse mean for FOIA requesters? Expect delays until further notice.

Amidst blaring banner announcements about the shutdown (which experts say could be a violation of the Hatch Act), agencies have alerted the public to expect delays in FOIA processing, status updates, and communications regarding their requests. Currently, the following agencies have posted FOIA-specific notices on their FOIA pages:

• Central Intelligence Agency: “NOTICE: In the event of a lapse in funding of the Federal Government after 30 September 2025, CIA will be unable to process any public access request submissions until the government re-opens.”
• Department of Defense (newly rebranded as the Department of War): “Due to the lapse in federal funding, the OSD/JS FOIA office is not processing requests. We will respond to your requests as soon as possible after funding has been restored and normal operations resume. Thank you.” The National Security Agency’s FOIA link reroutes to this same webpage.
• Department of State: “Due to a lapse in appropriations, website updates will be limited until full operations resume. FOIA request acknowledgements and responses will not be processed. Once funding has been restored, requests will be acknowledged as soon as practical.”
• U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command: At the time of this publication, INSCOM’s FOIA page is currently unresponsive, but the previously live page had stated that “FOIA services are unavailable.”
• Marine Corps: “1 Oct 25: Due to a lapse in federal funding, we have been furloughed, and will, therefore, be out of the office and unable to monitor or respond to emails until the furlough has ended.”
• Office of the Director of National Intelligence: “Due to a lapse in appropriations, ODNI FOIA staff are furloughed and are not available to monitor or respond to requests or emails. Requests will be processed when the ODNI resumes normal operations.”
• Department of the Interior: “Due to the federal government shutdown, the processing of FOIA requests, status updates and communications regarding such requests may be delayed. For more information please visit: https://www.doi.gov/shutdown.”

Meanwhile, the FOIA.gov homepage states that “FOIA requests that fail to submit to agencies will not be resubmitted until funding is re-established.” This message about requests shortly follows the statement: “Democrats have shut down the government.”

In the days immediately following the shutdown, the National Security Archive continued to receive correspondence from staff within the Department of Energy’s Office of General Counsel related to our FOIA requests. Likewise, as reported by E&E News, FOIA staff at the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency have continued to send FOIA correspondence. One EPA employee told E&E under anonymity that “FOIA programs at the agency have been left alone so far,” but “responses will be slow.”

Even if a small number of FOIA staff are left untouched by the shutdown, their work is virtually impossible without being able to search for and review documents from subject matter experts who are currently furloughed.

The National Security Archive has largely stopped filing FOIA requests – but we continue to file our appeals on time (90 days after final agency response letters are issued) because the shutdown doesn’t “stop [the] FOIA clock” on requests and appeals.

FOIA Wiki’s entry on government shutdowns helps break this down. According to statements by the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) and the Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy (OIP), during the 2013 shutdown, “the Department of Justice’s Handbook for Agency Annual Freedom of Information Act reports that ‘even where an entire agency FOIA office is closed due to weather conditions, furloughed employees, or other circumstances outside of these specific statute, the agency must count those days for reporting purposes.’” Regarding the same 2013 shutdown, OIP stated that, although “logically” lapses in funding should not be considered “‘working days,’” agencies should in fact “count as part of their response times for FOIA requests and appeals the…days when the government is closed.”

This burden of policy rests on the requester though, who is beholden to the 90-day deadline to file administrative appeals, while agency compliance with the initial 20-day response deadline is “all over the map.”

Our advice? Submit at your own risk. Requesters who choose to submit FOIA requests should be conscientious about following up with those agencies to ensure that their request was received and assigned a tracking number. And make sure to submit your appeals before the 90-day deadline. Lastly, remember that FOIA staff are dealing with delays largely out of their own control.