Comment Starters

Comment Starters are ideas and suggestions to help you draft a message to your Senators and Representative. You may not see your specific idea or thought noted below. That's OK! The most effective messages are customized and personal, explain why funding for NARA is important to you, and ask Congress to help. After reviewing this page, click the Take Action button for the next steps.

Start your message by telling Congress that the National Archives needs double the funding. Providing NARA with $842 million in FY 2027 will ensure that it keeps its mandate to acquire, preserve and make accessible the records of the federal government for the next 250 years.

After writing that first sentence, customize! The following suggestions will help you get started. Please do not copy and paste the text without customizing it.

• I rely on the National Archives to access records about my family, such as [insert types of records you have used]. These documents provided information I could not find anywhere else. For example, I found [elaborate on what you found or tell a story about the documents you used]
• The National Archives provides certified copies of federal records necessary for use in ___ [legal work, estate case, dual citizenship]. I regularly order certified copies and delays in receiving these records would impact ___.
• I am working on obtaining dual citizenship for my family [because________] and [insert record types here] records from NARA are required to make the application.
• I am working on ____ [a movie, an estate settlement, research for a book] and NARA has records that provide information that can be located no where else. Without access, I ____
• I work in real estate and mineral rights, and the economic impact of not being able to access records for work will ___
• As a veteran, the National Archives and the NPRC provide essential services that allow me to obtain documents necessary for me to receive my VA benefits. Without quick access to these records, I would be [explain potential impacts to receiving VA services]
• The funding increase the National Archives needs is important to me because ___.
• Increasing funding for Electronic Archives is essential for preserving the “history of now.” As a researcher, I know how valuable agency records are to my research. I want to be certain that researchers 100 years from now can access records...