Press/Journalists

President Signs National Archives Budget
Press Release · Wednesday, December 8, 2004

College Park, MD … Congress has passed and the President has approved a budget for the National Archives and Records Administration for Fiscal Year 2005 of $321,291,000, which exceeds the President's request.

Overall, the budget, slightly greater than last year's appropriation, provides funding to meet the challenges presented by electronic records, address storage and preservation requirements, and improve the National Archives technology infrastructure.

The funds are part of the omnibus spending bill that includes funding for agencies and departments whose regular FY 2005 appropriations bill had not yet been enacted. The measure also authorizes a 3.5 percent pay raise for Federal employees.

Included in the total of $321,291,000 are $266,945,000 for operating expenses, $35,914,000 for the Electronic Records Archives, $13,432,000 for repairs and restorations, and $5,000,000 for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, (NHPRC).

However, the legislation also includes a .83 percent (eighty-three one hundreds of one percent) across-the-board reduction on all accounts. This means an agency-wide reduction of approximately $2,426,000 from the appropriated amounts.

In commenting on the budget, Archivist of the United States John W. Carlin said, "In this very tight budget climate, the President and the Congress again have demonstrated their support for this agency and the programs and services we provide that are so important to our nation."

Last year, the National Archives received an appropriation of $316,322,000, with an across-the-board reduction of approximately $1,866,000.

The new legislation allocates $266,945,000 for base operating expenses, the level the President requested. It restores a cut the House had made in this account during its consideration of the Archives funding requests.

To meet electronic records challenges, Congress included the Archives request for $35,914,000 for the Electronic Records Archives, to manage, preserve, and provide access to the Government's electronic records. This is the full amount requested by the President. It is earmarked for the first phase of the system.

To meet storage and preservation needs at our facilities nationwide, the lawmakers approved $13,432,000 for the repairs and restoration appropriation, which included several items not in the President's request:

  • $3,000,000 for site preparation and construction management for the new regional archives facility in Anchorage, AK,
  • $2,000,000 for continuing repairs to the plaza at the Johnson Library in Austin, TX,
  • $1,000,000 for design work for expansion at the Kennedy Library in Boston, MA
  • $750,000 for design of a renovation to the Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, NY, to upgrade the mechanical and electrical systems and to prepare space for a new privately-funded exhibit,
  • $500,000 for technical assistance for the private Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA. Last year's appropriations bill cleared the way for the Nixon Library to become part of our system of Presidential libraries.

Congress also boosted the President's request of $3,000,000 for the NHPRC, the grant-making arm of the National Archives, to $5,000,000. In FY 2004, the NHPRC received $10,000,000.

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For more information, the press may contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 202-501-5526.

This page was last reviewed on January 7, 2013.
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