The National Archives has been granted more time to devise a system for preserving the government's electronic records.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman decided this week to give the agency, which keeps government records of historical value, more time to write regulations telling federal agencies what information in their computers must be saved and what can be deleted.
Friedman lifted a Sept. 30 deadline he had given U.S. Archivist John W. Carlin earlier this year to make new rules for dealing with the government's growing quantities of e-mail and word-processing records.
Carlin said he needed more time to consult with agencies on the need for bigger budgets to deal with the problem. He said that without the extension, agencies would have to enact a "no delete" rule that would eventually clog computers.
"Agencies are not at present in the position to divert scarce attention and resources to coping with the effects of a 'no delete' rule for electronic mail and word processing documents," Carlin told the court.
In response to a case brought by advocacy group Public Citizen, Friedman last October declared "null and void" a Carlin directive that would have allowed agencies to delete records from their computers as long as they kept paper copies of the final version of those records.
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