Electronic and Classified Records Overwhelming National Archives

progressive

(Wed, 14 May 2008 15:36:23 -0500 (CDT)) --- National Security Archive Update, May 14, 2008 Electronic and Classified Records are Overwhelming the National
Archives, According to Senate Testimony by Archive Director

www.nsarchive.org

For more information contact:

Thomas Blanton - 202/994-7000

Washington, D.C., May 14, 2008 - The National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA) is overwhelmed and behind the curve, facing
huge increases in both electronic records and classified records,
according to Congressional testimony today by National Security
Archive director Tom Blanton.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government
Information, Federal Services, and International Security, chaired
by Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), asked for the National Security
Archive's expert testimony for an oversight hearing on NARA under
the title "Protecting Our Nation's History for Future Generations."

Blanton warned: "[T]he National Archives today faces two overwhelming
challenges - the exponential increase in government-held electronic
records, and the geometric increase in currently classified and
previously declassified records - with which NARA has neither the
resources nor the strategy to cope."

On electronic records, Blanton cited the case of the White House
e-mail to argue for Congressional mandates to agencies that they
include archiving requirements at the front end of information
technology procurement (the government spends $68 billion a year
on IT, compared to NARA's total budget of about $400 million and
electronic archiving budget of $67 million), and for a much more
active leadership and auditing role for NARA.

On classified records, the Archive's testimony urged Congress to
impose a "classification tax" on federal agencies (the government
currently spends more than $8 billion a year keeping secrets and
only $44 million declassifying them) to fund a National Declassification
Center. The Archive also recommended that Congress change the
standards for current classification and for release of historical
records, with independent review boards providing oversight (following
the highly successful models of the Kennedy Assassination Records
Act and the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act).

Government witnesses at the hearing included the Hon. Allen Weinstein,
Archivist of the United States; Linda Koontz, Director, Information
and Management Issues, U.S. Government Accountability Office; and
Paul Brachfeld, Inspector General, National Archives and Records
Administration. Blanton appeared on the second panel along with
Patrice McDermott, Director, OpenTheGovernment.org; James Henderson,
Former State Archivist of Maine, and George Mason University Professor
Martin J. Sherwin on behalf of the National Coalition for History.

www.nsarchive.org

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