If facts, records, and history matter, so does an honest, non-politicized National Archives: A message from the National Archives Union.
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If you were to ask the members of the transparency community —– especially the folks who file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and try to shake info loose from the government about the agencies they’ve had the most difficulty working with — you’d likely get a hodgepodge of answers: with the usual suspects of the CIA and FBI alongside personal bêtes noires like the IRS and SSA (Social Security Administration).
However, if you were to ask that same community which agency has been the most helpful, I would wager good money the overwhelming majority would all say the same thing — the National Archives, more formally the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) .
While far from perfect, NARA is, in my experience, staffed with good people with good intentions who are good at what they do. And part of what they do is clean up the messes of agencies like the FBI, whose recordkeeping is, at best, sloppy and, at worst — deliberately obfuscating.
They have the thankless task of helping those who would bring our hidden history to light, and even before Donald Trump’s arrival, their stingy budget was testament that no good deed goes unpunished.
Now, the fate of NARA, and with it, the invaluable untapped knowledge it safeguards, is more precarious than ever, with the unceremonious firing of the chief archivist earlier this month, and the subsequent resignation of her successor this last week.
While retaliation for NARA’s role in Trump’s classified documents case is a clear motivation for the sackings and looming cuts, we cannot afford to allow the stories yet untold to be the collateral damage in a personal vendetta.
And likely enough more than collateral damage, as crippling the archivists, and thus blinding chroniclers and historians, is a tried and true tactic of aspiring authoritarians looking to cover their tracks.
Below you’ll find an open letter from a current NARA employee on the stakes they’re facing, and we encourage you to read and share. (Note: We have added emphases to parts of the letter, and broken up some of the long paragraphs.)
WhoWhatWhy Introduction by JPat Brown
February 17, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
I’m writing to you on behalf of the American Federation of Government Employees, Council of NARA Locals (AFGE Council 260), which represents over two thousand employees at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Since its establishment in 1934, NARA has steadfastly carried out its non-partisan mission of managing, preserving, and providing access to the records of the United States government. NARA holds one of the largest motion picture collections in the world, consisting of films created and collected by federal government agencies, as well as films donated to the archives for the window they provide into the history of the United States. Because works created by the federal government are generally not copyrightable, the vast majority of NARA’s motion picture holdings are in the public domain and may be used by anyone without payment of rights fees. In 2024, NARA’s motion picture staff digitized over 2,200 reels of film for researchers and processed vendor orders for over 3,300 reels.
On the evening of February 7, 2025, the Archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen Shogan, was summarily dismissed from her position. The White House provided no reason for Dr. Shogan’s removal to Congress, which is required by law. This Friday Acting Archivist Jay Bosanko abruptly resigned, leaving NARA without leadership dedicated to impartial recordkeeping.
This should be concerning to all Americans when viewed in conjunction with other Trump administration actions. Information and data are being removed from government websites and the administration is claiming the power to unilaterally shutter independent federal agencies established by Congress.
It seems clear that the current administration aims to push agencies to present information through a partisan lens and plans to critically impair agencies’ functions by slashing funding and staff. These actions would fundamentally impede NARA’s ability to fulfill its mandate of preserving and making the motion picture film records of the United States available to its people.
In the event of layoffs and substantial budget cuts, the National Archives could experience the following:
- An increase in response time to all researcher requests and agency inquiries, including through the motion picture vendor process
- An increase in the time required to process and catalog motion picture items and make them available for public request
- An increase in pull fees and/or the introduction of new fees for access
- A decrease in the number of films digitized for public access
- A decrease in the number of days the research rooms are open to the public
- A decrease in the capacity to preserve the motion picture film records of the United States government
NARA motion picture staff are responsible for safeguarding military films documenting every major U.S. conflict in the 20th Century. They care for the records of NASA’s Apollo missions, which were recently showcased in numerous television and film documentary projects, including Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11, exhibited in IMAX theaters. They preserve and provide access to the public domain Universal Newsreel collection, documenting decades of world history and culture through the 20th Century. And there are many more films, from a myriad of government agencies, that are preserved and described for researchers to discover.
Funding and staffing changes at NARA will impact not just individual people now, but could have repercussions for the moving image archives field for years to come. If agencies cannot easily access records management guidance, it will impact the quality of moving image records that are preserved for future Americans.
If NARA is required to prioritize the preservation of particular government records over others at the whims of a partisan administration, disfavored records may become inaccessible or even be destroyed. The motion pictures relied upon by historical researchers and media producers may become too expensive or difficult to access.
As the National Archives’ Union, we call upon you to stand in solidarity with us. Please engage the advocacy groups within your professional organization to speak up and support NARA.
Encourage your members to reach out to their representatives to urge them to fully fund the National Archives and defend it from a partisan takeover. Help us sound the alarm.
In solidarity,
Mitchell Buffone
President
American Federation of Government Employees
Council of NARA Locals (Council 260)
