Federal officials at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) refused in 2024 to disclose the existence of 383,000 government employees or any details of their employment status, such as their titles, grade, the agency where they work, or their pay, according to Open the Books (OTB).

“In the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 payroll, the names of 383,000 people working in 56 agencies were redacted, representing $38.3 billion in pay. That’s on top of the entire $62.8 billion, 761,624-person Department of Defense (DOD) civilian payroll where all names were redacted. That 383,000 figure grew from the 259,000 names that were redacted in FY 2020,” the Illinois-based non-profit government watchdog reports in the latest edition of its quadrennial “Mapping the Swamp: A Study of Administrative State Personnel, 2025 Edition.”

The combined total of 1,144,624 names not disclosed “represents 39 percent of the entire federal headcount (including USPS and White House) and the $101 billion combined payroll represents 37 percent of total federal payroll provided,” according to the OTB report.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires the public disclosure to any requesting citizen of the U.S. of all federal documents, except those covered by a small group of exemptions that includes national security, ongoing criminal and civil investigations, protecting commercial business secrets, individual privacy, and others. OPM officials cited both the national security and privacy exemptions to justify refusing to provide OTB the names and related information of all federal workers.

On top of the 57 agencies that refused to disclose information about their employees, OTB said OPM officials refused to provide information for employees working at U.S. intelligence agencies, Foreign Service employees, the IRS, the Department of Energy, and the Bureau of Prisons. In addition, the office of the vice president claimed to be exempt from the FOIA.

“The 383,000 redacted names mark an uptick from 259,000 in FY 2020. It also represents a continued climb from our most recent previous examination. The FY 2022 federal payroll saw the Biden administration redacting 350,860 rank-and-file employees,” OTB said.

“Following the pandemic lockdowns that moved many employees to remote work, 281,000 worksites were also redacted that year. Who are these employees and — as importantly — where in the world are they working? All of these recent figures mark an exponentially growing transparency problem: These redactions have absolutely skyrocketed since FY 2016. At the midpoint of the Obama administration, a mere 2,300 names were redacted from the payroll produced by OPM,” the report continued.

A related aspect of the growing government transparency problem encouraged during the Biden era is the lengthy response time to FOIA requests at most federal agencies. The law requires agencies to respond with at least an acknowledgement of receiving an FOIA request within days of its receipt.

“According to new data obtained by Open the Books, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests last year that were labeled ‘complex’ had an average response time of 267 days across 416 agencies. ‘Simple’ requests took an average of 39 days for an initial response, but 31 agencies still took in excess of 100 days on average. At two agencies, that number was more than 800 days. 100 business days is roughly five calendar months. 800 is an astonishing 40 months, or more than 3 years. It’s simply unacceptable,” the report explained.

Topping the list of longest delays in responding to simple FOIA requests in 2024 was the Department of Commerce at 836 days, followed by the Department of Veterans Affairs at 811 days. The wait time for the Executive Office of the President under Joe Biden in 2024 was 350 days for responding to a simple FOIA request.

The long wait times for responses to simple FOIA requests are an important aspect of what OTB views as a growing lack of transparency and accountability in government during the Biden era.

“Not only does it take too long to find out how our tax dollars are being spent, but agencies lean too heavily on a set of exemptions that allow them to withhold or redact information. Many of the record 383,000 hidden names among the civilian workforce were redacted under FOIA exemption 6, citing ‘privacy concerns,’” the OTB report said.

“Remarkably, OPM itself redacted 38 names. National security concerns are certainly understandable, but these names are hidden at places like the Peace Corps, the Railroad Retirement Board and the Smithsonian Institution. Why do those employees need to be immune from taxpayer oversight,” the report asked.

"You can’t have accountability without transparency first. The DOGE effort, both in the executive branch and in Congress, has exposed a number of areas where more daylight is badly needed. Our audit of claimed savings from DOGE found the majority could not be verified with existing reporting tools, which operate on at least a 30-day delay. That’s one reason why we're pushing for real-time transparency legislation. The money belongs to Americans, and they should be able to monitor it just as they do their own bank accounts.

“The federal payrolls have more than a million civilian names redacted. FOIA requests are plagued by time delays, sometimes for years, and the materials that are produced often abuse exemptions carved out in the law. The Trump administration has a historic opportunity to fill these transparency gaps — that alone will ensure public demand for savings long after the sun sets on the current DOGE era.”