Trump administration resumes layoffs, targeting National Archives staff

The federal agency tasked with preserving governmental and historical records began laying off employees on Monday, a move that leadership said would strategically reallocate resources but protect its core mission. 

The National Archives and Records Administration told employees it would issue reductions in force to only around 3% of staff, or a cut of nearly 100 employees, with notices being sent out on to some of those impacted on Monday and to the remaining individuals on June 30. NARA said it limited the impact of RIFs by proactively offering voluntary separation incentives and the changes would enable faster public access to the agency’s records, artifacts and holdings. 

“Please know that decisions regarding NARA’s future state were made carefully and strategically,” Valorie Findlater, the agency’s chief of management and administration said in a note to staff obtained by Government Executive. “We are committed to supporting our employees through the many changes happening at NARA as we champion a more efficient NARA in the future.” 

Findlater noted her agency took the actions in response to a requirement from President Trump that all agencies reshape their organizations. A federal judge has blocked implementation of that order at nearly two-dozen agencies, but NARA is not one of them. That case is now pending before the Supreme Court and many of those agencies are prepared to move swiftly to implement layoffs of their own should the justices rule in the administration’s favor. 

According to two NARA employees familiar with the layoffs, the first round of RIFs “wiped out” the Office of Innovation and the division that provides support to field offices and presidential libraries. The 13 libraries currently under NARA management are themselves expected to sustain “deep cuts” in the second round of layoffs, that employee said. 

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston was forced to briefly close when NARA fired its probationary employees in February. The RIFs will mark only a portion of the staffing losses the agency ultimately sustains, as many additional workers have already taken buyouts or early retirement offers. 

As the probationary staff were let go, employees were already warning that facilities would be short staffed, museum programming would be limited and record retrieval—such as those for veterans—would likely see backlogs. Trump fired Colleen Shogan, the most recent U.S. Archivist, earlier this year. He named State Department Secretary Marco Rubio as acting archivist, though James Byron, president of the Richard Nixon Foundation, is currently managing the agency on a day-to-day basis. 

Rubio attempted to implement RIFs at State over the weekend but was blocked in federal court at the 11th hour.