NARA's Budget

NARA's Operating Expenses fund core operations, including Legislative, Presidential, and Museum Services; Citizen Services; Agency and Related Services; Facility Operations; and the Electronic Records Initiative. For all these initiatives, NARA received only $421 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026.

For FY 2027, the White House seeks to shrink funding for NARA's Operating Expenses. These continued cuts will severely limit NARA operations across the board. The budget proposal targets the Electronic Records Initiative with a 33 percent cut, and does not mention funding for the Electronic Records Archive at all. If the 2027 Budget Proposal passes Congress as is, funding for electronic records at NARA will receive 56 percent less than in 2007. This will diminish proper collection of electronic records; imperil storage and processing; and lead to record loss.

NARA needs double the funding so that the agency can address critical challenges; enhance agency record-keeping oversight; improve technological capabilities; and accelerate mass digitization efforts. Double the current funding will ensure that NARA continues to fulfill its legal obligations to preserve and care for the records of the US government for the next 250 years.

As the charts show, the National Archives receives modest annual funding -- not enough to maintain its critical mandate to acquire, preserve and make accessible the records of the federal government. Any cuts that occur will have immediate impact on operations.