AC 07.2019

February 01, 2019

MEMORANDUM TO FEDERAL AGENCY CONTACTS: Message from Chief Records Officer regarding Resumption of Normal Operations

Welcome back to all of you who were furloughed these past few weeks and many thanks to those of you who worked during the shutdown to support your agencies!  My office was one of the NARA units affected by the lapses in funding and we were not available to support you and otherwise direct and oversee records management across the Government. We are resuming our mission and look forward to again working with you and your agencies. Thank you for all of your efforts and commitment to the work of creating and maintaining federal records.

If any new records management issues occurred while we were on furlough, please contact your appraisal archivist so that we can begin assisting you. Other points of contact on specific topics are available at https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/contact-emails. If you are uncertain who to contact, you can email my office directly at rm.communications@nara.gov.

If any damage to records occurred during the furlough, only to be discovered when staff returned, we remind you of important records emergency information located on our website, including records recovery services and emergency or unauthorized disposal instructions.

I ask for your continued patience and flexibility as my office assesses the impact of the furlough on our projects and programs. For example, the annual records management reporting period for 2018 has been delayed. We will be updating the time table as soon as possible, keeping in mind the impact of the shutdown on all of us. We will also determine whether or not we will reschedule training classes that were cancelled in January. The Annual Move timeline may shift as well. Status reports for pending records schedules and Capstone email forms will resume as soon as possible, but again recognizing the impact of the shutdown. We will let you know how we are going to handle other impacted activities as soon as possible.

LAURENCE BREWER
Chief Records Officer
for the U.S. Government