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]

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States Constitution, United States Bill of Rights, Emancipation Proclamation (starting in 2026),[8] and many other historical documents, is headquartered in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.

The mission of the National Archives is:

We drive openness, cultivate public participation, and strengthen our nation's democracy through equitable public access to high-value government records.[9]

The work of the National Archives is dedicated to two main functions: public engagement and federal records and information management. The National Archives administers 15 Presidential Libraries and Museums, a museum in Washington, D.C. that displays the Charters of Freedom, and 15 research facilities across the country.[10] The agency's online catalog makes available over 160 million records ranging from before the start of the republic to the modern government. However, the digitized records represent only a small fraction of the over 13 billion pages in the holdings of the National Archives.[11]

The National Archives' Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom where, in-between two Barry Faulkner murals, the original United States Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, and other American founding documents are publicly exhibited.

The National Archives governs federal records and information policy for the executive branch and preserves and makes available the records of the judicial and legislative branches. Agencies in the executive branch are required by the Federal Records Act to follow approved records schedules. All records maintained by the executive branch must be properly identified by NARA and authorized for eventual destruction or appraised to be of permanent historical or legal value to be preserved and made available to the public. Only two to three percent of records created by the federal government are deemed to be of permanent value. The Presidential Records Act mandates that all records created by the Executive Office of the President are to be preserved and transferred to the National Archives at the end of a president's administration.[12][3][13]

The Archivist of the United States is the chief official overseeing the operation of the National Archives and Records Administration. The Archivist not only maintains the official documentation of the passage of amendments to the U.S. Constitution by state legislatures, but has the authority to declare when the constitutional threshold for passage has been reached, and therefore when an act has become an amendment.

The Office of the Federal Register publishes the Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, and United States Statutes at Large, among others. It also administers the Electoral College.

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)—the agency's grant-making arm—awards funds to state and local governments, public and private archives, colleges and universities, and other nonprofit organizations to preserve and publish historical records. Since 1964, the NHPRC has awarded some 4,500 grants.

The Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) is a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) resource for the public and the government. Congress has charged NARA with reviewing FOIA policies, procedures, and compliance of federal agencies and to recommend changes to FOIA. NARA's mission also includes resolving FOIA disputes between federal agencies and requesters.

History

Originally, each branch and agency of the U.S. government was responsible for maintaining its own documents, which often resulted in the loss and destruction of records. Congress created the National Archives Establishment in 1934 to centralize federal record-keeping, with the Archivist of the United States serving as chief administrator. R. D. W. Connor was chosen to be the first leader of the organization.[14]

After a recommendation by the first Hoover Commission in 1949, the National Archives was placed within the newly formed General Services Administration (GSA). NARA was officially given its independence from the GSA with the passing of the Records Administration Act of 1984, thus giving birth to the institution that exists today.[15]

In December 1978, millions of feet of newsreels were destroyed in a fire at an offsite location in Suitland, Maryland.[16] The reels, made of exceptionally flammable nitrate material, had been donated previously by Universal Pictures and were stored in special vaults intended to protect against fires. In total over 12.6 million feet of film was destroyed.[16]

In March 2006, it was revealed by the Archivist of the United States in a public hearing that a memorandum of understanding between NARA and various government agencies existed to "reclassify", i.e., withdraw from public access, certain documents in the name of national security, and to do so in a manner such that researchers would not be likely to discover the process (the U.S. reclassification program).[17] An audit indicated that more than one third withdrawn since 1999 did not contain sensitive information.[18] The program was originally scheduled to end in 2007.

In 2008 the NARA announced that they would not be archiving government websites during transition, after carrying out such crawls in 2000 and 2004. The End of Term Web Archive was established in response to this.[19][20]

In 2010, Executive Order 13526 created the National Declassification Center[21] to coordinate declassification practices across agencies, provide secure document services to other agencies, and review records in NARA custody for declassification.

A 2022 report by the National Security Archive revealed that the National Archives budget (when adjusted for inflation) has not increased since 1991 despite the exponential growth of electronic records created by the federal government.