AC 17.2018

March 29, 2018

MEMORANDUM TO FEDERAL AGENCY CONTACTS: Agency Disposition Profile Reports

Since 2013, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has provided Disposition Profiles to agencies that store records with the Federal Records Centers Program (FRCP). This year, NARA will once again be sending out Disposition Profiles to all Agency Records Officers (AROs) and Senior Agency Officials for Records Management (SAORMs) who store records in the FRCP.

The Profile provides an overview of an agency’s current and previous year’s holdings, highlights those records that are past due for accessioning or destruction, and shows how agencies can save money over the long term by approving disposition of past-due records. This year, the Profiles again highlight records past due for disposal due to litigation holds and describes progress made since 2015 on lifting the Tobacco Industry Litigation (TIL) Freeze and destroying eligible records.

The FRCP has destroyed more than 4.5 million cubic feet of records over the last 3 years that were past due for destruction. However, 1.5 million cubic feet of records past-due for destruction remain in storage. Records often become past due when agencies do not respond to disposal notices. Therefore, starting in FY 2019, NARA will implement higher storage fees for past-due records previewed in FY 2018 Interagency Agreements. Similarly, starting in FY 2019, NARA will implement the higher storage fees for unscheduled records stored in the FRCP.

In addition to past-due records and unscheduled records, NARA’s Office of Agency Services is turning its attention to the more than 3 million cubic feet of records in the FRCP with pending, deferred, and other uncertain statuses. These records are colloquially known as “limbo code records” as their disposition schedule status remains uncertain or unresolved. The Profile highlights the costs to any agencies who are storing records with unresolved disposition schedule status.

When agency records officers receive the Disposition Profile, we ask for their help to further reduce the number of records past-due for destruction or accessioning and to address records in uncertain disposition statuses. The ultimate measure of success for any Federal records management program is the authorized, appropriate, and timely disposition of the agency's records.

If you have any questions about the Disposition Profiles, please contact your agency’s FRCP Account Manager or email frc@nara.gov.

DAVID M. WEINBERG
Director, Federal Records Centers Program

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