CREW requests NARA communications with agencies failing to keep records

The public deserves to know whether the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is effectively communicating with agencies that have failed to comply with record keeping rules. NARA should be strongly promoting transparency and ensuring agencies are complying with record keeping laws. 

CREW has requested NARA communications with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Interior (DOI).

Previously, CREW has sued DHS for failing to create records of families separated at the border, sued NARA for approving the destruction of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainee records, sued EPA for failing to keep records on regulatory decisions, and filed a complaint against DOI and Secretary David Bernhardt for failing to disclose records of his meetings with lobbyists.

The lack of transparency around how our nation’s official record keeping agency holds negligent departments accountable is deeply concerning. The requested records will reveal agency record keeping failures as well as any steps they have taken at the direction of NARA. Accountability in record keeping is long overdue: the public deserves a transparent and responsive government.