National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch,[4] charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also tasked with increasing public access to those documents that make up the National Archives.[5] NARA is officially responsible for maintaining and publishing the legally authentic and authoritative copies of acts of Congress, presidential directives, and federal regulations. NARA also transmits votes of the Electoral College to Congress.[6] It also examines Electoral College and constitutional amendment ratification documents for prima facie legal sufficiency and an authenticating signature.[7]
"NARA" redirects here. For other uses, see Nara (disambiguation).Agency overview
June 19, 1934
(Independent Agency April 1, 1985)[2]
- National Archives and Records Service (GSA)
Littera scripta manet
(Latin for "the written word remains")
2,848 (FY 2021)[3]
$397 million (FY 2021)[3]
- Colleen Joy Shogan, Archivist of the United States
- vacant, Deputy Archivist
The National Archives, and its publicly exhibited Charters of Freedom, which include the original United States Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, United States Bill of Rights, and many other historical documents, is headquartered in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.
Controversies[edit]
In December 2019, the National Archives approved record schedules for federal records created by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which documented detainee sexual abuse and assault, death review files, detention monitoring reports, detainee escape reports, detainee segregation files, and Detention Information Reporting Line records. The schedules permitted ICE to destroy the records when they were no longer needed for business use.[59] The schedules were approved without changes despite public outcry when they were first proposed in the Federal Register.[60] A lawsuit was brought against the National Archives by several plaintiffs, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the American Historical Association, and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. In March 2021, a federal judge for the District Court for the District of Columbia ruled against the National Archives that the records must be preserved stating, "NARA's approval of the schedule was arbitrary and capricious on the grounds that NARA failed to evaluate the research value of the ICE records and that NARA failed to address significant and relevant public comments."[61][62]
In January 2020, a Washington Post reporter noticed blurred protest signs in an image of the 2017 Women's March at the Archives' public exhibit. Some of the edited signs contained potentially offensive language, and some mentioned president Donald Trump. Besides censoring language, the changes altered the meaning of some protest signs. The agency defended the edits and said they were made "so as not to engage in current political controversy", but admitted it "made a mistake ... we were wrong to alter the image."[63][64][65]
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