Staffing cuts to public records teams under the Trump administration have raised concerns about the federal government’s ability to respond to information requests and maintain accountability.
President Donald Trump has frequently claimed his administration is the “most transparent in history.” But several agencies have come under scrutiny after the elimination of entire offices responsible for Freedom of Information Act requests that already faced persistent backlogs.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has implemented widespread workforce reductions in federal agencies as part of a broader push to downsize government operations.
The federal government has slashed public records staff across key agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, according to CNN, and offices within the Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS said it is restructuring its records request process.
“Streamlining HHS’ FOIA operations will increase consistency by standardizing the Department’s approach to radical transparency,” a spokesperson for HHS told the Washington Examiner.
Gunita Singh, a staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, called the recent FOIA firings a “blow to transparency,” warning that rather than addressing chronic delays and understaffing, the government is making it even harder to access public records and comply with the law.
“Journalists trying to cover the operations and activities of the government are being stymied, and it’s ultimately us, the public, who loses out on important information,” Singh said.
FOIA has faced delays for years
The Freedom of Information Act, signed into law in 1967, marked a major shift toward openness in the federal government. It gives the public the power to request internal records from federal agencies unless those records are protected for reasons such as national security or privacy.
However, FOIA backlogs have been mounting for years as agencies face hiring challenges and struggle to modernize outdated systems. Limited resources and growing demand pushed many departments to the brink, leaving them increasingly unable to meet legal deadlines.
The pandemic worsened long-standing FOIA delays, with some agencies halting operations entirely. The FBI, citing security restrictions tied to classified systems, temporarily shut down its FOIA office and stopped processing electronic requests. Even before recent staffing cuts under the Trump administration, the federal government was falling behind.
Federal agencies submitted their yearly FOIA reports to the Department of Justice in March, reviewing how they handled public records requests under the Biden administration. The reports show sharp differences in performance. While some agencies slashed backlogs, others left most requests unanswered.
The State Department had the worst performance. Nearly 97% of FOIA requests went unanswered by year’s end. Officials blamed the backlog on complex records, interagency reviews, and chronic staffing and tech shortages. The Interior Department followed with a 53% backlog, citing litigation demands and inconsistent processing across its bureaus. The Department of Transportation wasn’t far behind, at 43.9%, driven by a spike in complex requests, particularly from the Federal Aviation Administration, and limited staffing.
A handful of agencies managed to stay on top of the surge. The Commerce Department came in at 5.4%, crediting early outreach and aggressive backlog planning. The Education Department reported a 5.5% backlog despite a 62% spike in requests, which the agency attributed to tech upgrades and department-wide training. The Treasury Department reported a 21% backlog, citing a surge in duplicative, high-volume requests and staffing gaps, particularly at the IRS, which received more than 60% of all FOIA requests submitted to the department.
And while the Department of Homeland Security received over 911,000 requests, more than any other agency, it reported holding its backlog to 24.1% by automating workflows and streamlining immigration records processing. HHS reported a 24.5% FOIA backlog, blaming a wave of politically charged requests, staff losses, hiring freezes, and mounting lawsuits.
The departments of Veterans Affairs, Energy, and Labor have yet to make their reports publicly available. Agencies were expected to post their FOIA reports online by March 17, 2025, and notify the Office of Information Policy.
The collapse of FOIA access
In March, HHS abruptly eliminated FOIA teams at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health, bringing records processing to a near standstill.
While some agencies have begun restoring FOIA personnel, others appear to have their offices closed, such as the CDC, according to several current and former employees.
After the Washington Examiner emailed the CDC FOIA-specific email address, an automatic message in response read, “For all FOIA requests, please go to the HHS FOIA Office website.” The CDC did not respond to a request for comment on the situation.
During a press conference last month, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was “restoring all the FOIA offices,” but the department has not outlined specific plans. He said it would be “much easier” to get information from HHS, and his agency would aim to post documents to its website “as much as we can.”
A former CDC FOIA employee who was laid off last month and spoke on the condition of anonymity expressed concern about consolidating FOIA staff. He noted that agencies such as the FDA, CDC, NIH, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have traditionally maintained separate teams to handle their own public records, which reflected the unique nature of each agency’s work.
“Each agency is so specific, and filling requests is more complicated than most people realize,” the person said. “It often really requires an in-depth understanding, which is why it’s important to house the FOIA staff within each agency.”
“I worry the backlog is going to grow even more,” the person added, mentioning the office receives anywhere from 1,000 to 2,500 FOIA requests a year.
The true number of staff involved in processing FOIA requests is made even more of a complicated matter because several agencies have relied on contract support to assist with the initial stages of FOIA processing, as confirmed by the DOJ Chief FOIA Officer’s Report.
A program manager overseeing a FOIA contract for the National Park Service said its staffing has been severely reduced, noting 16 contractors working on FOIA have all been let go, leaving just two people working in the Washington Support Office for the entire agency.
The person said contractors are deeply embedded in FOIA processing across some federal agencies, with contracting staff handling nearly every step of the process: drafting acknowledgment letters, collecting and reviewing records, applying redactions, and preparing final responses. Government FOIA officers must sign off before anything is released.
“FOIA requests are going to be much slower now without our team’s support as NPS does not have the personnel to process the majority of these FOIA requests,” the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
“Summer time really usually causes an increase in requests. Due to the influx of patrons at national parks, they will be going into a busy season with basically no staff.”
At the Department of Defense, a FOIA employee said they hadn’t seen layoffs on their team but pointed to systemic problems tied to hiring freezes and a locked USAJobs system that has prevented even approved hires.
“There’s a bottleneck in the shape of a five-sided building,” the employee said, referencing Pentagon-level holdups.
“Most of DOD is hurting for staff, but not because of [reduction in force]. Latent turnover stings when we don’t expect to be able to hire for at least the next year,” the person said, speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation.
Litigate or be left in the dark
Lauren Loricchio, who leads the investigations team at Tax Notes and has reported extensively on FOIA delays at the IRS, said the agency’s backlog has been growing for years, and concerns are mounting that it could worsen amid possible staff cuts. But like many agencies, she noted, the IRS has been tight-lipped about what’s going on behind the scenes.
“We haven’t been able to confirm that [FOIA staff] were let go. … The IRS media team really hasn’t been very forthcoming. When we asked about this, they basically said they wouldn’t comment,” Loricchio said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
Loricchio explained that attorneys rely on FOIA to access client records from the IRS, especially in cases involving tax disputes. While the IRS has made some information available through online accounts, litigation is becoming the only way to get information.
“It’s expected that people are going to have to litigate more to get information from the government, and that’s a problem because it costs money to litigate,” she explained, noting that appeals are rarely successful, which makes it harder and more expensive for people to access records.
“The suspension rate was like about 93%, so that means that appeals is just saying yes, agreeing with the IRS decision to deny information. And I mean it, that seems like a problem,” she said.
Even Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group known for public records litigation often aimed at uncovering information about Democratic officials and administrations, said it is increasingly being forced to fight in court just to access basic records.
President Tom Fitton pointed to a pending legal battle involving the U.S. Agency for International Development over the disclosure of recipients of a $7 million grant allocated for humanitarian aid in Gaza after the federal government declined to reveal the identities of the grant recipients. It cited concerns that such disclosure could endanger aid workers by making them targets for Israeli forces.
“The judge wasn’t terribly impressed by the excuse to not provide information,” Fitton told the Washington Examiner. “Our view was that there was an obligation to provide records under FOIA.”
Fitton dismissed concerns about recent FOIA staffing cuts, saying there are “plenty of people in the offices who can do the work.” His deeper frustration lies with the lack of transparency across federal agencies.
“The fight’s now over what they’re not giving us, and what they’re hiding from us that they found,” he said, pointing to the group’s lawsuit against USAID.
Fitton emphasized that leadership, not staffing, is the core problem, arguing that FOIA responsiveness shouldn’t depend on whether a case “comes across the Attorney General’s desk,” but on a governmentwide commitment to public accountability.
“There should be a directive, not only from the Justice Department, from other agencies, or maybe even the president could do an EO making this a priority if we want accountability that the people expect,” he explained. “This should not be on a case-by-case basis.”
Congressional Democrats sound alarm on cuts
Top Democrats are ramping up pressure on the Trump administration over what they call a deliberate campaign to gut government transparency.
In a May 8 letter to Kennedy, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, challenged the administration’s commitment to openness.
“It is essential that FOIA offices have the resources to disclose appropriate information to the public in response to records requests,” he wrote, mentioning that the federal law has “served as the basis for groundbreaking public reporting, litigation, and legislation” to improve government programs.
Wyden demanded detailed answers by May 22, including which officials signed off on the dismissals and how the department plans to fulfill its legal obligations under FOIA moving forward.
Still, Wyden may be left waiting. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, also pressed for answers, sending a letter to CDC acting Director Dr. Susan Monarez to object to the decision to sideline 22 FOIA staffers ahead of their planned termination on June 2.
According to committee aides, the administration has yet to offer a meaningful response, and the investigation into the firings remains active.
“Donald Trump is on a crusade against transparency,” Connolly told the Washington Examiner.
“From illegally firing independent inspectors general to eliminating the staff who facilitate FOIA requests, he will stop at nothing to shield himself from accountability, conceal his Administration’s flagrant violations of the law, and deny the American people their right to obtain information about his Administration’s efforts to dismantle our government and the services it provides.”
“This disturbing pattern of secrecy is not aligned with our nation’s laws or values, and Democrats will keep fighting to protect Americans’ freedoms,” he added.
JUDGE FINDS DOGE WORKS IN ‘UNUSUAL SECRECY’ AND MUST COMPLY WITH RECORDS REQUESTS
While many Republicans support the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce, one GOP senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there must still be a plan to ensure agencies can comply with the law and continue processing FOIA requests.
“Look, I’m not crying over these staff cuts, there’s plenty of room for downsizing, but we’ve got to make sure that there’s the manpower needed to fulfill the government’s obligation to fulfill these requests,” the senator said. “If these backlogs get even worse than they’ve been in the past, then I’m supportive of boosting the numbers.”
