FOIA has real deadlines and a rare enforcement design: when the agency blows its clock, you're deemed to have exhausted remedies and may file suit — no appeal round, no permission slip. Silence converts directly into a federal case.
The agency owes a determination in 20 business days (extendable modestly for unusual circumstances). Lapse without one and constructive exhaustion attaches: the district court — prominently including the District of Columbia, proper venue for nearly every federal agency — can order production on a schedule the court supervises. Fee-shifting exists for substantially prevailing plaintiffs, which concentrates agency minds wonderfully.
Acknowledgment is not a determination. Once the statutory clock lapses, the leverage question is only whether the records justify the filing fee — often they do, and the docket does the rest.
The statute permits fee awards to substantially prevailing requesters, including through court-ordered or catalyzed releases. Conditional, never assumed — but real.
A-file requests stuck in year-long queues are classic candidates; litigation routinely converts 'in process' into a production schedule.