This part describes NARA's policies on access to archival records of the Executive Branch and donated historical materials in the National Archives of the United States and to records in the physical custody of the Federal records centers. This part applies to records and materials covered by the Federal Records Act (44 U.S.C. 2108 and chs. 29, 31, 33) and donated historical materials. This part does not apply to Presidential, Supreme Court, Senate, House of Representatives, and Architect of the Capitol records except for the purpose of directing mandatory review requests in subpart E.

Agencies that retire their records to a Federal records center (FRC) set rules for access to those records. Address requests for access to records stored in Federal records centers directly to the appropriate agency or to the appropriate FRC director at the address shown in part 1253. When the agency's rules permit, NARA makes FRC records available to requesters. When the agency's rules and restrictions do not permit access FRCs receive requests that should have been sent to the agency, the FRC director refers the requests and any appeals for access, including those made under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552, as amended), to the responsible agency.

NARA handles access to archives and FRC records received from agencies that have ceased to exist without a successor in function as described in Subpart B.

See 36 CFR part 1270, Presidential Records, for the rules for access to Presidential records transferred to NARA.

See 36 CFR part 1275, Preservation and Protection of and Access to the Presidential Historical Materials of the Nixon Administration, for the rules for access to Nixon Presidential materials.