AC 12.2019

March 04, 2019

MEMORANDUM TO FEDERAL AGENCY CONTACTS: Change to the Public Comment Process for Records Schedules

The Office of the Chief Records Officer for the U.S. Government is changing the way it solicits public comments on draft records schedules from an email system to one that uses the Federal eRulemaking Portal, https://www.regulations.gov. NARA posted a Federal Register notice detailing this change in process on March 4, 2019.

The Federal Records Act 44 U.S.C. § 3303a(a) affords the public the opportunity to comment on all schedules for records proposed as temporary. NARA will post batches of records schedules to regulations.gov as supporting “Other” documents in the same docket as the notice. The public will be able to provide comments directly on regulations.gov, thus streamlining the administrative process. The comment period is also being extended from 30 days to 45 days. For anyone who is unable to submit comments via regulations.gov, the option to submit comments by mail remains.

NARA will consider all comments submitted by the posted deadline, and consult as needed with the Federal agency seeking the disposition authority. After considering comments, we will post on regulations.gov a “Consolidated Reply” summarizing the comments, responding to them, and noting any changes we have made to the proposed records schedule. We will then send the schedule for final approval by the Archivist of the United States.

After the Archivist of the United States approves them, we post all schedules on our website in the Records Control Schedule (RCS) Repository, at https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/rcs. The RCS contains all schedules approved since 1973.

We are making this change as a result of clear, widespread interest from the public to utilize a web-based platform for a more modern, transparent, and efficient way to review and comment on records schedules. We are interested in receiving feedback on this new process and will continuously strive to improve the experience for providing public comments on proposed records schedules. You may send feedback to us at request.schedule@nara.gov.

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