Early on in the pandemic, DHS announced that its headquarters would be taking over the processing of all Covid-related FOIA requests. So, if you submitted a request to FEMA for FEMA-specific documents, DHS headquarters would process the request. #FOIAFriday 
This change complicated the FOIA process and was not consistent with usual practices. For example, under this policy, DHS still needed to have FEMA FOIA officers conduct the search for responsive records.
Plus, under the policy, one single office was reviewing and managing many more FOIA requests than normal. It's hard to imagine that this didn’t create an even greater FOIA backlog.
DHS recently informed us that it determined most Covid-19 requests should be handled by the individual component offices instead of by DHS headquarters.
We welcome the return to regular order, which we hope will enable the more efficient processing of requests and removal of any appearance of politicization of FOIA at DHS.
FOIA is one of the most important tools available to uncover the federal government’s failure to handle the Covid-19 pandemic and the Trump administration’s abuses of power. Worsening backlogs hamper accountability and investigative efforts.
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