The backlog is the visible part of the data problem
Executive branch agencies received 1,707,197 FOIA requests in FY2025 and closed the year with 463,541 pending. The processing capacity is real, and so is the underlying cause: records that are not described, not linked, and not searchable by anything except full text. TopQuadrant governs the metadata layer that makes a request answerable.
Trusted to govern the data behind the world's most regulated decisions.
Every statutory obligation asks the same question of your records
FOIA wants responsive records found and correctly redacted. NARA’s electronic records requirements want permanent records held in electronic form with appropriate metadata. The Evidence Act wants evaluation plans built on evidence you can produce. Discovery wants defensible search across PII-bearing material. All four need described, connected, governed records.
FOIA requests pending across the executive branch at the close of FY2025, against 1,707,197 received and 1,635,055 processed.
Less time assembling evidence when the audit trail is produced by the work rather than reconstructed on request.
Estimated executive branch cost of administering FOIA in FY2025, across 4,823 full-time equivalents.
Described, searchable records
Search by what a record is, as well as what it says
Records are described against governed vocabularies for programme, subject, record type, custodian, and retention, and linked to the entities they concern. A FOIA search then narrows on structure before it falls back to full text.
- Governed description. Programme, series, subject, and custodian recorded against controlled vocabularies.
- Entity-linked records. Find material via the person, organisation, location, or programme it concerns.
- Search that narrows. Structured filters reduce the candidate set before text search runs.
Retention & records scheduling
Know which records are compliant and which are exposed
Retention schedules, permanent-record designations, and disposition status are governed data attached to record series. Compliance is a report you can run rather than a survey you have to commission.
- Schedules as governed data. Series, retention periods, and disposition authority held and queried.
- Compliance reporting. Which permanent records meet electronic format and metadata requirements, and which do not.
- Disposition tracking. Records eligible for transfer or destruction, with the authority recorded.
Privacy & PII controls
Hold openness and protection in the same system
Data-sharing mandates and Privacy Act obligations pull in opposite directions, and both are enforceable. Classify PII at the governed level, express handling rules as constraints, and make every disclosure decision traceable to the rule that authorised it.
- PII classified centrally. Sensitivity recorded on the governed asset, applied wherever it is used.
- Rules as constraints. Handling, sharing, and residency requirements enforced automatically.
- Decision trail. Every disclosure and withholding traceable to its authority and its approver.
Evidence & reporting
Generate the report from live governed data
Chief FOIA Officer reports, Evidence Act deliverables, data inventories, and audit responses are all queries against governed data here, so they update as the underlying reality changes rather than being rebuilt each cycle.
- Reports as queries. Statutory deliverables generated from governed data, refreshed on demand.
- Trend visibility. Backlog, processing time, and exemption use broken out by complexity and programme.
- Defensible discovery. Produce the responsive set with the search logic and redaction basis on record.