FOIAengine: Requests Focus on Personnel Levels and Fraud
News media and non-profit organizations are using the Freedom of Information Act to monitor the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the Department of Education, according to data compiled by FOIAengine, which tracks FOIA requests in as close to real time as their availability allows.
Eliminating the department has been a priority of political conservatives since it was created in 1979 during the administration of President Jimmy Carter. President Donald Trump promised during the 2024 presidential campaign to close the department, and on March 20, 2025, he signed executive order 14242 directing the secretary of education to take steps to facilitate closing the department and returning authority over education to states and local communities. He did not direct that the department be closed, because that would require an act of Congress.
As a result, during the first quarter of 2025, the ED’s workforce was reduced by 40 percent from 3,902 to 1,579 employees. The management of many programs has been shifted to other federal agencies, including the Departments of Labor, State, Interior, Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Justice. A new June report by the Education Department’s Office of Inspector General reveals that 135 divisions have been left without a single employee. And in March, the administration announced that the department would be moved to smaller quarters.
One function of the department that has not been eliminated is its legally required FOIA program. Since January 20, 2025, the ED has issued FOIA logs reporting over 6,900 requests. May’s FOIA log was added to FOIAengine on June 22.
The 194 May requests reveal significant interest in many aspects of the department’s operations and dismantling. The largest number of requests sought information about individual cases involving two important programs: Office of Civil Rights complaints (29 requests) and administration of the federal student loan and financial aid system (17 requests).
May also saw several requests focused on personnel developments in the department. Samuel Ryan, who listed no professional affiliation when submitting his FOIA request, submitted five requests on May 8 and May 14 seeking organization charts, directories, and staffing plans for the periods before and after ED reductions in force, as well as records reflecting communications between ED and other departments and agencies regarding the transfer, delegation, or assumption of functions previously performed by ED.
Seth Galanter of the Rule of Law Firm PLLC in Washington, DC, submitted four requests in early May seeking “a spreadsheet of all new employees on-boarded by the Department between January 1, 2025, and the date of search.” Another sought very specific information about “all Department employees who were required to work during the government shutdown in October-November 2025.”
Another group of requests demonstrated how non-profit organizations use FOIA requests to develop information advancing their policy objectives. Two organizations sought to identify Biden Administration contacts with labor union and civil rights leaders.
Martha Astor of the Defense of Freedom Institute, which describes itself as an anti-union education non-profit, on May 5 sought information about any communications from 2021 through 2025 between seven listed teachers’ union officials and Biden Administration ED officials.
Chris Stanely of the Functional Government Initiative, which characterizes itself as a nonpartisan transparency organization, on May 1 requested “all records of communications” between the Southern Poverty Law Center, an activist racial justice law firm, and a list of Biden Administration ED officials.
And Kate Bailey of Judicial Watch, which characterizes itself as a conservative educational foundation, requested on May 7 “any and all communications between the Department of Education and any member, employee, or representative of the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias.”
Two lengthy requests sought department documents regarding student loan fraud. Vanessa Martinex of the Los Angeles Times requested on May 4 “loans since 2020 that have been flagged as fraudulent or under investigation,” including dates the loans were originated, when the investigation started and ended, the result of the investigation, the lender name, loan amount and the school for which the loan was made. She also asked for overall numbers of loans and dollar amounts since January 1, 2020, for school loans made, loans investigated for fraudulent activity, loans found to be fraudulent, and the number of loans currently being investigated.
Peter LaBanca, who did not list an affiliation, submitted on May 29 a request for documents supporting the department’s December 11 press release stating that it had prevented more than $1 billion in federal student aid fraud. LaBanca asked for “all records, reports, analyses, spreadsheets, or databases identifying the individuals, entities, or organizations that received fraudulently disbursed federal student aid, including but not limited to the more than $30 million allegedly disbursed to deceased individuals and the more than $40 million allegedly disbursed to companies or bots posing as students.” He also requested “any communications between Department officials and the Office of Management and Budget, the White House, or DOGE related to the identification or public announcement of these fraud figures.”
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Randy E. Miller, co-creator of FOIAengine, is a Washington lawyer, publisher, and former government official. He has developed several online information products and was a partner at Hogan Lovells, where he founded the firm’s Brussels office and represented clients on international regulatory matters. Miller also has served as a White House trade lawyer, Senior Legal Adviser to the U.S. Mission to the World Trade Organization, policy director to Senator Bob Dole, and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Yale and Georgetown Law. FOIAengine is a product of PoliScio Analytics (PoliScio.com), a venture specializing in U.S. political and governmental research, co-founded by Miller and Washington journalist John A. Jenkins.
Write to Randy E. Miller at randy@poliscio.com.