The government of the United States is built on multiple checks and balances, designed to ensure transparency and accountability at multiple levels. One of those checks resides in the position of the archivist of the United States.
Friday, it was announced that the current archivist, Dr. Colleen Shogan, had been fired by the president, apparently without notice. Worse, it was leaked to the press the day before the official announcement. But not to the archivist (who reportedly held an all-hands meeting this week) or others in her agency, that the job of interim archivist been given to current Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. On Thursday, a senior archivist told CBS News “there was ‘no word that anything is changing.’”
As a genealogist and historian, as well as a citizen, I find this very troubling news.
Some people don’t seem to know what the archivist does. And if nobody knows why the role is important, it would be little matter if that role is eliminated, or filled with someone less than competent to the immensely important duties they have in maintaining a government of, by, and for the people.
So, here’s a (very bried) primer.
What does the archivist of the United States do?
The need for accurate record-keeping by the government was recognized by the founders of the US government, who passed the Records Act of 1789. As records and their importance grew, federal records archives were established, and in 1934 the first US archivist, Robert D. W. Connor, was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Dr. Shogan was the first woman officially appointed to the post, although three women have served as Acting archivists.
If you’ve ever looked for an ancestor’s census or immigration record, you may be familiar with the National Archives website, nara.gov. Securing, maintaining, and making available (as appropriate) billions of paper and electronic records is just one small (well, huge) piece of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
The Archives are a core resource for historians, genealogists, attorneys, and policy-makers across the globe. Without organized, well-maintained archives, it would be difficult (if not impossible) for lawmakers to do their jobs.
Document from Judah West’s Revolutionary War pension application file; source: nara.gov
The archivist is the head & chief administrator of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Their key responsibilities include:
Preservation and Custody: Safeguarding and making available valuable federal records, including the Declaration of Independence & Constitution.
Legal: Maintaining custody of state ratifications of constitutional amendments and issuing certificates of ratification. The archivist’s role in acknowledging the valid ratification of a Constitutional Amendment (for a recent example, see the Equal Rights Amendment) is one of the checks in the ratification process.
Document Management: Receiving and preserving original statutes, joint resolutions, and acts of Congress.
Leadership: Developing and administering NARA programs.
Special challenges for the archivist (besides budget) include:
Declassification and Access: The archivist must balance the need for public access with the requirement to protect sensitive information, managing the declassification process efficiently. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are managed through NARA. This is one reason funding NARA adequately is particularly important.
Compliance: Ensuring (through audits and reports to Congress) that federal agencies comply with the Federal Records Act. Transparency and accountability to US citizens are severely impeded without the archivist’s efforts here.
If an agency doesn’t comply, the archivist can provide additional specific guidance, and:
Notify: The archivist notifies the agency head of any unlawful removal, defacing, alteration, or destruction of records and assists in initiating action through the Attorney General for recovery or redress.
Inspect: The archivist conducts inspections or surveys to evaluate records management practices and recommends improvements.
Report to Congress: If an agency does not act on unlawful activities, the archivist requests the Attorney General to initiate action, and notifies Congress.
The archivist provides incredibly important guidance and oversight *from the inside*, oversight that is critical to a functioning democracy, on a daily basis. And that’s why it’s important to not just have one, but to have a competent, non-partisan one.