Under the Obama administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 budget request, funding for the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) would increase by $7 million from the current fiscal year’s appropriation to $466.9 million.

Please note below that for comparison purposes, the FY ‘09 budget number will be included in parentheses after the FY 2010 proposed amount.

Operating Expenses (OE)
$339.8 million ($327.3 million) +$12.5 million

OE funds cover general operating expenses such as energy and security costs, rents and building operations for NARA facilities around the country, increased technology costs, and salaries for NARA staff.

For FY 2010, the Budget requests $4.2 million and 27 FTE to implement two new mandates assigned to NARA and supplement NARA’s workforce.

The FY ’10 budget operating expenses program budget includes $1 million to hire an additional 12 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) archival staff.

The Budget requests $1.4 million and 6 FTE to staff and operate the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS). The OGIS will serve as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ombudsman for the federal government as authorized by the OPEN Government Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-175).

In May 2008, President Bush issued a memorandum to the Heads of Departments and Agencies on the Designation and Sharing of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), directing that a CUI framework be implemented within the Executive branch within five years and designating NARA as the executive agent. The O&E budget includes $1.9 million and 9 FTE to staff and operate the CUI Office.

Electronic Records Archives (ERA) project–$85.5 million ($67 million) +$18.5 million

For FY 2010, the Budget requests an increase of $18.5 million to develop the capability for providing online public access to NARA’s electronic holdings, expand preservation capabilities, increase system capacity, and provide backup and restore functions. The increase would bring ERA total funding to $85 million. Of the total, the Budget requests that $23.7 million be made available as one-year funding and the remaining $61.7 million be made available as three-year funding. Use of the ERA will be made mandatory for all federal agencies beginning in January 2011.

Repairs and Restoration
$27.5 million ($50.7 million) -$23.2 million

The bill provides $27.5 million for repairs and restoration. This amount includes $17,500,000 for necessary expenses related to the repair and renovation of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY, which NARA has listed as its top capital improvement priority. The remaining $10 million will be used to fund repairs and restorations to 16 NARA-owned facilities.

The reason for the major reduction in repairs and restoration funding is because the FY ’09 budget included $22,000,000 to complete construction of an addition to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, MA; and $2,000,000 to complete the repair and restoration of the plaza that surrounds the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, TX.