The government shutdown closed down the majority of FOIA offices, and put tens of thousands of open requests on ice. As federal employees return to work, responses to MuckRock users’ FOIA requests are pouring back in.

While the past three weeks have been kind to our mail quota, MuckRock is overjoyed to see the back of the shutdown. In particular, it’s great to see that agencies like the CIA have switched their fax machines back on.

We’ve submitted a number of FOIA requests related to the shutdown itself, including asking for details on agencies’ decisions to deactivate their websites and the closing of the World War II Memorial. We’ll also be monitoring the long-term impact of the shutdown on FOIA response times, agency backlog and fee assessments.

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