Senate votes to divert NARA's e-archives funds to Amtrak.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: Up front: news, trends & analysis

The Senate Appropriations Committee has voted to defer for one year the $35.9 million requested for the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) electronic recordkeeping project and divert the funds to Amtrak.

It is a move that many view as a setback for the e-archives project, which would create a digital warehouse for government documents, including e-mail and computer files, that cannot be converted easily to paper format for long-term storage.

The National Journal quoted a Senate source who revealed that the funds were cut at the request of Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee that approves funding for the Transportation and Treasury departments. In early September, the committee approved the bill, S.1589, which also would fund NARA's project. According to the source, Murray had planned to propose the funding cut for the archiving project in an amendment, but the proposal was ultimately inserted in the committee report. The Bush administration requested only $900 million to meet Amtrak's $1.8 billion budget, and the deferred e-archives funds will be used to help meet the shortfall, the source said.

The committee report calls for e-archives funds to be suspended for while NARA addresses management problems raised in an August report released by the General Accounting Office (GAO). According to that report, NARA has failed to follow electronic recordkeeping industry standards: "Key policy and planning documents are missing elements that are required by the standards ... NARA cannot adequately track the cost and schedule of the [electronic archiving] program." The report notes that, without a schedule, the risk that funds may not be used efficiently or effectively increases and, as a...