House panel clears bill to streamline National Archives

A House Government Reform subcommittee on Wednesday approved a bill to make the National Archives and Records Administration more efficient and user-friendly for federal agencies and the public.

The Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census Subcommittee passed the bill (H.R. 3478) by voice vote. "The National Archives, created by Congress in 1934 as the nation's record keeper, is a small agency with a very large task of identifying, acquiring, preserving and providing access to the permanently valuable records of the federal government," said Subcommittee Chairman Adam Putnam, R-Fla., adding the agency collects various records including documents from the Continental Congress to the battle maps of Operation Desert Storm, from parchment to e-mail.

Putnam said the measure would make changes in several key areas: it simplifies regulations for federal agencies wishing to hold onto records or documents beyond the agency's retention date; allows the agency to charge a fee for the use of its facilities for meetings and conferences and use the fees for educational outreach programs and gives the agency authority to purchase uniforms for service personnel.

The bill would also allow the agency to enter into cooperative agreements with state and local governments as well as non-profit organizations to carry out educational outreach programs. The agency also would have the authority to transfer up to $25,000 of its appropriated funding to each organization, but no more than $75,000 a year for the programs.

The full committee is expected to take up the bill Thursday morning, moving it to the House floor for a vote possibly late this week, according to John Constance, the agency's director for congressional and public affairs.