U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
What OGIS Found
1. VA acknowledged 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. (Recommendation 1)
2. VA’s handling of first-party requests, particularly with regard to the intersection between FOIA and the Privacy Act, is complex and confusing. (Recommendation 2)
3. VA’s confusing communication to veterans seeking their own benefits records prevents them from knowing whether they can expect administrative rights under FOIA. (Recommendations 3-5)
4. VA is not consistently complying with the FOIA statutory requirement to provide requesters with estimated dates of completion (EDCs) upon request. (Recommendation 6)
5. Letters from VA’s FOIA program to requesters are not written in plain language. (Recommendation 7)
6. VA’s reporting on the administration of FOIA appears to be inconsistent, complicating review of the FOIA program’s performance. (Recommendations 8-10)
7. VA’s decentralized system for obtaining records relies on collateral duty staff to locate records and process requests for records which slows the process. (Recommendation 11)
8. The technology and systems that VA uses to maintain records and process FOIA requests are siloed and not always efficient. Multiple programs are used to process FOIA requests and the platforms are unable to communicate with each other. (Recommendation 12)
9. Communication about VA’s FOIA program on the agency’s website is not always clear and consistent, and there is no FOIA handbook as required by the FOIA statute. (Recommendations 13 and 14)
10. VA’s FOIA program contact information and FOIA Public Liaison information on FOIA.gov, the government’s central website for FOIA, is often not correct. (Recommendation 15)
What OGIS Recommends
1. VA should be transparent about the time it takes veterans to obtain their own benefits records.
2. VA should consider whether its current processes best serve the needs of veterans who are requesting their own records.
3. VBA should remove administrative appeal rights from its first-party request acknowledgment letters and add those rights to final determination letters in accordance with FOIA.
4. When VBA uses FOIA exemptions to withhold information from veterans benefits files, it should inform requesters of the correct 90-day appeal window in all final determination letters in accordance with FOIA.
5. When VBA uses FOIA exemptions to withhold information from veterans benefits files, it should inform requesters of the availability of its FOIA Public Liaison and the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS).
6. If VA tells requesters that records will be processed under FOIA, VA should comply with FOIA’s statutory mandate of providing estimated dates of completion upon request.
7. VA should review all requester communications related to the FOIA program and re-write as needed all template letters to remove confusing, technical, or legal jargon, and ensure plain language.
8. VA should establish new procedures and quality control checks to ensure consistency in the statute’s data reporting requirements.
9. VA should use the final determination date rather than the acknowledgement date for annual FOIA reporting in accordance with FOIA.
10. Congress should consider asking the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct an audit of VA’s compliance with FOIA’s data reporting requirements in accordance with the statute, 5 U.S.C. § 552(i).
11. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and VBA should each review the structure of their FOIA programs to align their workforce with the FOIA needs of each component.
12. VA should ensure that systems used to maintain records and process FOIA requests are able to efficiently meet statutory requirements, and allow the primary FOIA case management system to assist with management controls and records management.
13. VA should finish and post the FOIA handbook to the VA FOIA webpage in accordance with 5 U.S.C. § 552(g)(3).
14. VA should review its FOIA library as well as the VA FOIA website to ensure all information about veterans records and the FOIA process is current and written in plain language.
15. VA should establish a quality control process to ensure all of its agency and subcomponent offices’ contact information is up-to-date and current on FOIA.gov.
What OGIS Reviewed
OGIS reviewed written materials including the agency’s FOIA regulations, standard operating procedures, management reports, FOIA Annual Reports, Chief FOIA Officer Reports, and organizational charts, among other materials. OGIS conducted 15 interviews of VA FOIA professionals and an online survey to which 162 VA FOIA professionals responded. OGIS also reviewed a statistically significant random sample of 383 cases processed in FY 2024, the most recent available at the time of our review in early 2025.
Compliance Assessment Report
Title: Review of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Program
Date: September 26, 2025