[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 244 (Thursday, December 21, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60630-60631]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-27462]


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NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

[NARA-2018-010]


Records Management; General Records Schedule (GRS); GRS 
Transmittal 29

AGENCY: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

ACTION: Notice of new General Records Schedule (GRS) Transmittal 29.

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SUMMARY: NARA is issuing a new set of General Records Schedules (GRS) 
via GRS Transmittal 29. The GRS provides mandatory disposition 
instructions for administrative records common to several or all 
Federal agencies. Transmittal 29 announces changes we have made to the 
GRS since we published Transmittal 28 in July. We are concurrently 
disseminating Transmittal 29 (the memo and the accompanying records 
schedules and documents) directly to each agency's records management 
official and have also posted it on NARA's website.

DATES: This transmittal is effective December 21, 2017.

ADDRESSES: You can find this transmittal on NARA's website at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/grs/grs-trs29.pdf. You can download the 
complete current GRS, in PDF format, from NARA's website at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/grs/trs29-sch-only.pdf.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For more information about this notice 
or to obtain paper copies of the GRS, contact Kimberly Keravuori, 
External Policy Program Manager, by email at 
[email protected] or by telephone at 301-837-3151.
    Writing and maintaining the GRS is the GRS Team's responsibility. 
This team is part of Records Management Services in the National 
Records Management Program, Office of the Chief Records Officer at 
NARA. You may contact NARA's GRS Team with general questions about the 
GRS at [email protected].
    Your agency's records officer may contact the NARA appraiser or 
records analyst with whom your agency normally works for support in 
carrying out this transmittal and the revised portions of the GRS. You 
may access a list of the appraisal and scheduling work group and 
regional contacts on our website at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/appraisal/index.html.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: GRS Transmittal 29 announces changes to the 
General Records Schedules (GRS) made since NARA published GRS 
Transmittal 28 in July 2017. The GRS provide mandatory disposition 
instructions for records common to several or all Federal agencies. 
With Transmittal 29, we come to the end of our five-year plan to 
completely rewrite the GRS dating from the 1940s and updated piecemeal 
over the succeeding decades. All the old items are now superseded or, 
in some case, rescinded.
    Transmittal 29 includes only schedules newly issued or updated 
since the last transmittal and those schedules' associated new-to-old 
crosswalks and FAQs. This means that many current GRS schedules are not 
included in this Transmittal.
    You can find all schedules (in Word, PDF, and CSV formats), 
crosswalks and FAQs for all schedules, and FAQs about the whole GRS at 
http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/grs.html. At the same location, 
you can also find the entire GRS (just schedules--no crosswalks or 
FAQs) in a single document.

What changes does this transmittal make to the GRS?

    GRS Transmittal 29 publishes five new schedules:

GRS 1.3 Budgeting Records...............  DAA-GRS-2015-0006
GRS 2.7 Employee Health and Safety        DAA-GRS-2017-0010
 Records.
GRS 5.7 Agency Accountability Records...  DAA-GRS-2017-0008
GRS 6.3 Information Technology Records..  DAA-GRS-2017-0009
GRS 6.6 Rulemaking Records..............  DAA-GRS-2017-0012
 

    This transmittal also publishes two updates:

GRS 2.1 Employee Acquisition Records:     ..............................
 Updated item (see question 3).
GRS 5.2 Transitory and Intermediary       ..............................
 Records: Updated FAQs (see question 4).
 


[[Page 60631]]

What changes did we make to GRS 2.1?

    We expanded items 050 and 051 to include mandatory job applicant 
drug testing records.

What changes did you make to the GRS 5.2 FAQs?

    We added new questions 7 and 8 in response to questions raised by 
users. We also corrected a typo. ``May not be destroyed until 90 days 
after submission of a notification to NARA'' in question 12 (question 
10 in the earlier version) now reads ``may not be destroyed until 60 
days after submission of a notification to NARA.''

What GRS items does GRS Transmittal 29 rescind?

    Many old GRS items are superseded by new GRS items. A few old 
items, however, have outlived their usefulness and cannot be 
crosswalked to new items. The table below lists old items rescinded by 
GRS Transmittal 29.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
     GRS            Item             Title                Reason
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1............  21a1.........  Employee Medical    Was simply a filing/
                               Folders:            handling instruction
                               Transferred         and never had an
                               employees.          associated
                                                   disposition
                                                   authority. The
                                                   instruction is now a
                                                   Note appended to GRS
                                                   2.7, item 060.
1............  22...........  Employee Health     Both the Bureau of
                               Statistics.         Labor Statistics and
                                                   the Occupational
                                                   Safety and Health
                                                   Administration
                                                   confirmed these
                                                   agency reports are no
                                                   longer collected.
3............  17...........  Small and           The Small and
                               Disadvantaged       Disadvantaged
                               Business            Business Utilization
                               Utilization Files.  program terminated in
                                                   2015. The records are
                                                   no longer being
                                                   created.
16...........  5............  Project Control     Item authorized
                               Files.              periodic disposal of
                                                   system data after
                                                   long-term records
                                                   were downloaded and
                                                   safeguarded. Such
                                                   data is now covered
                                                   under 5.1, item 020.
16...........  11...........  Information         Item was added to the
                               Resources           GRS in 1987 to comply
                               Management          with regulations
                               Triennial Review    issued in response to
                               Files.              the Brooks Act of
                                                   1985. The Information
                                                   Technology Management
                                                   Reform Act of 1996
                                                   repealed this
                                                   authority, ending the
                                                   reviews.
16...........  14f2.........  Management Control  Item described non-
                               Records--Review     record reference
                               files--Copies       copies, which do not
                               maintained by       need to be scheduled.
                               other offices as
                               internal reviews.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Rescinded items are shown in context of their schedules in the old-
to-new crosswalk.

How do I cite new GRS items?

    When you send records to an FRC for storage, you should cite the 
records' legal authority--the ``DAA'' number--in the ``Disposition 
Authority'' column of the table. For informational purposes, please 
include schedule and item number. For example, ``DAA-GRS-2013-0001-0004 
(GRS 4.3, item 020).''

Do I have to take any action to implement these GRS changes?

    NARA regulations (36 CFR 1226.12(a)) require agencies to 
disseminate GRS changes within six months of receipt.
    Per 36 CFR 1227.12(a)(1), you must follow GRS dispositions that 
state they must be followed without exception.
    Per 36 CFR 1227.12(a)(3), if you have an existing schedule that 
differs from a new GRS item that does not require being followed 
without exception, and you wish to continue using your agency-specific 
authority rather than the GRS authority, you must notify NARA within 
120 days of the date of this transmittal.
    If you do not have an already existing agency-specific authority 
but wish to apply a retention period that differs from that specified 
in the GRS, you must submit a records schedule to NARA for approval via 
the Electronic Records Archives.

How do I get copies of the new GRS?

    You can download the complete current GRS, in PDF format, from 
NARA's website at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/grs/trs29-sch-only.pdf.

Whom do I contact for further information?

    Writing and maintaining the GRS is the responsibility of the GRS 
Team. You may contact the team with general questions about the GRS at 
[email protected]. This team is part of Records Management Services in 
the National Records Management Program of the Office of the Chief 
Records Officer at NARA.
    Your agency's records officer may contact the NARA appraiser or 
records analyst with whom your agency normally works for support in 
carrying out this transmittal. A list of the appraisal and scheduling 
work group and regional contacts is on the NARA website at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/appraisal/index.html.

David S. Ferriero,
Archivist of the United States.
[FR Doc. 2017-27462 Filed 12-20-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7515-01-P