H.R. 2726 would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to develop a plan to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests within timelines required by current law. VA would be required to meet those timeliness standards within five years of the bill’s enactment. In that plan, which would be due within 180 days of the bill’s enactment, VA must describe the technology and process changes needed to improve response times. VA also would be required to report annually on its progress in implementing the plan and complying with FOIA response timelines.
Under current law, people may request information from the government under FOIA, and agencies must respond to those requests within 20 business days. FOIA requests are considered backlogged if the responsible agency does not provide a response within 20 business days of receipt. VA’s annual FOIA reports indicate the agency’s backlog averaged 3,360 requests over the 2017-2020 period—about 15 percent of the total number of annual requests received.
