Agencies not complying with record preservation policies

Agencies are not preserving e-mail records properly because of depleted staffs, an overwhelming volume of messages, and a reliance on an archaic print-and-file storing process, industry and government representatives told a congressional panel on Wednesday.

Comment on this article in The Forum."Records management in general is afforded low priority across government," Linda Koontz, director of information management issues at the Government Accountability Office, told a hearing of the House Information Policy, Census and National Archives Subcommittee. "Without a mandate we won't get too far."

At the hearing, Koontz released preliminary results from an ongoing GAO study of how four agencies managed e-mail and electronic records. GAO is studying the electronic storage practices at the Homeland Security and Housing and Urban Development departments as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Trade Commission. Koontz said the agencies print and then file e-mails, but about half of senior officials were not following these procedures, and the e-mails for these officials were maintained in e-mail systems that lacked record-keeping capabilities, such as the ability to group the e-mails using a classification system.

"Unless they have record-keeping features, e-mail systems may not permit easy and timely retrieval of both groupings of related records as well as individual records," Koontz said.

EPA is implementing an electronic application to preserve e-mails, and DHS and HUD are considering introducing one as well. FTC is not considering any change to its current process, Koontz said.

To provide agencies with more guidance on preserving electronic records, the House is considering the Electronic Communications Preservation Act, which Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; William Lacy Clay, D-Mo.' and Paul W. Hodes, D-N.H. introduced on April 15. The bill would strengthen policies for preservation of government records by requiring the National Archivist to establish and regulate standards for the capture, management and preservation of White House e-mails and other electronic communications. The bill also would require agencies to preserve electronic communications in electronic format.

The legislation's potential cost to agencies could be "astronomical," said Gary Stern, general counsel for the National Archives and Records Administration, especially when other electronic records brought about by Web 2.0 technologies are included, such as instant messaging, wikis, blogs and other types of records. National Archives spends $450,000 annually to support the deployment of a records management application for e-mail and other electronic records for about 60 employees.

"Extrapolating our costs -- and our anecdotal understanding of [records management applications] costs in other agencies -- across the federal government results in potential astronomical outlays by federal agencies if they were to be required to create and provide ongoing support for such [records management applications]," Stern said in testimony.

He also noted the bill's requirement that the National Archives would maintain authority over the White House's electronic records might be unconstitutional. "Up until now, under the Presidential Records Act, we've worked closely with presidential administrations on issues, but we've had no formal responsibility," Stern said. "This bill would insert NARA [for] overseeing records management in the White House over the president. It's not clear whether that would be permissible under the Constitution."

Without the bill, officials with open government advocacy groups are concerned that the White House won't be held responsible in preserving electronic records. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a suit under the Federal Records Act against the White House Office of Administration concerning missing White House e-mails, because the group cannot sue under the Presidential Records Act, said Patrice McDermott, director of OpentheGovernment.org, which counts CREW among its coalition members.

"I understand the constitutional issues, and I don't have a good answer for that," she said. "But one of the concerns is that there is no way to enforce accountability [of] records management in the White House. We understand it's a difficult dance [for NARA]. They're there at the invitation of the White House in many cases, but there needs to be some way for the outside community to hold the White House accountable."