Welcome Remarks at the U.S. Senate Youth Program

Good evening and welcome to the National Archives.

For decades, the United States Senate Youth Program has brought some of our brightest young people to Washington, DC, to learn firsthand how our democracy works and how important it is for all citizens to take part in it.

We’re really excited to be part of your program––because––as the caretaker of our nation’s founding documents, the National Archives plays an essential role in preserving and strengthening constitutional democracy in the United States.

We make our records accessible to the public so that all Americans of all backgrounds can claim their rights of citizenship, hold their government accountable, and understand their history so they can participate more effectively in their government.  THEIR GOVERNMENT.

Nearly seven decades ago Congressman William L. Dawson of Illinois wrote a letter to a fellow Congressman in which he observed:

“An informed public makes the difference between mob rule and democratic government. If the pertinent and necessary information on government activities is denied [to] the public, the result is a weakening of the democratic process and the ultimate atrophy of our form of government.”

Archives are a fundamental requirement of a democracy, and we are very serious about that mission. I want to tell you a bit about the various ways we carry it out.

Just upstairs from this theater is the Rotunda, where more than a million visitors come each year to view the founding documents of our nation––the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

The National Archives’ role in our democracy goes beyond the grand architecture and faded parchments of the Rotunda. Our holdings include some 13 ½ billion pages of textual records, tens of millions of maps, charts, drawings, photographs, and films, and more than 1300 terabytes of electronic data. We are responsible for the permanently valuable records of the Executive Branch agencies and departments, the White House, and the Supreme Court.  Some of these records are famous, documenting watershed moments and renowned figures in our history, but most are quite ordinary: census records, immigration files, homestead applications, and letters from citizens to elected officials. We have digitized vast amounts of historical documents, and now have about 220 million digitized images in our online catalog, the most of any archives or cultural institution in the world. Because of this critical mass, many of our researchers were able to continue their work during the worst of the pandemic. We are on track to reach 500 million––a half a billion––by the end of 2026.  

We serve customers at 43 locations in 17 states, not just in the Washington area. This includes our massive National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, presidential libraries, and regional facilities. We have wide-ranging and numerous public and education programs, including a new civics initiative. We serve as the federal government’s FOIA ombudsman. We have a grantmaking arm. We publish the daily Federal Register, in print and online. We administer the electoral college, and we certify amendments to the Constitution.

We oversee records management and security classification policy for the entire federal government. We are leading the U.S. Government in the transition to a fully electronic environment, establishing the regulations and policies and providing the support to federal agencies to help them make the transition. For the most part, we will no longer accept paper records after June 2024. Why? Because the overwhelming majority of documents today are created electronically––it makes zero sense to print them and send them to us as paper when preserving and making them available in electronic format vastly improves discoverability and usability. 

For us, it’s all about ensuring ready access to the evidence of our government for the life of the republic. Because democracy depends on it. That’s a pretty noble mission, and one I’m honored to be part of. You all are extraordinarily impressive young people who are going to have many options in life. If I can give you any advice, it’s to find a career that gives you that sense of fulfillment because you’re working for something much larger than yourselves.  

Thanks again for coming to the National Archives this evening.