Who has the authority to approve destroying federal records?

The Short Answer

No single person can unilaterally destroy a federal record. Under federal law, records may be destroyed only when their disposal has been formally authorized — and that authorization comes from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Archivist of the United States, working together with each agency. Destroying records without proper authority is prohibited and can carry legal consequences.

How Disposal Authority Works

Federal records destruction follows a chain of authority rather than an individual’s decision:

• Congress sets the legal framework, principally through the Federal Records Act, which requires agencies to manage records and prohibits unauthorized destruction.
• NARA and the Archivist of the United States approve how long records must be kept and when they may be destroyed. This approval is documented in records schedules.
• The General Records Schedules (GRS), issued by NARA, authorize disposition of records common across many agencies (for example, routine administrative records).
• Agency-specific records schedules, proposed by an agency and approved by NARA, cover records unique to that agency’s mission.

In practice, an agency cannot destroy a record unless it is covered by an approved schedule — either the GRS or an agency-specific schedule — and the required retention period has elapsed.

Who Acts Within the Agency

Inside an agency, the work is carried out by designated officials rather than by anyone who happens to hold the file:

• The Senior Agency Official for Records Management (SAORM) and the Agency Records Officer are responsible for ensuring records are scheduled and that destruction follows approved schedules.
• Program staff and records custodians may execute the actual disposal, but only as authorized by an approved schedule.

Important Limits on Destruction

Even when a schedule authorizes disposal, destruction must pause if a record is subject to a litigation hold, an active FOIA request, an audit, an investigation, or other legal obligation. Authorized retention periods are minimums, not deadlines that compel destruction.

To learn more about how schedules and retention periods govern these decisions, see the retention and disposition topic hub.