National Archives and Records Administration (Nara) Modernization Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. HERRELL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 8665, the National Archives and Records Administration Modernization Act, offered by Mr. Khanna and myself.

The National Archives and Records Administration plays an important role in securing our Nation's history for future generations.

This simple legislation updates Archive's authoring law to ensure that the Archivist is not referred to solely as a male.

This makes sense, since our current Acting Archivist, Debra Wall, is a female.

To date, there have been three female Archivists, yet there are several instances where title 44 still refers to the Archivist as a man.

Although the code, as written, does not preclude a woman from serving as the Archivist, these changes would update outdated language in title 44 and modernize our Federal code to make it more uniform across the board.

Replacing this outdated language in our Federal code is the very least we can do to acknowledge the valuable contributions of thousands who have worked at NARA since its creation in 1934--and the thousands more who will work there in the years to come.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan, straightforward correction of the law, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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