Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Supervisor Jackie Speier, District 1
Subject: Preservation of Records and Artifacts of the San Bruno National Archives Facility
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution calling on the National Archives and Records Administration to halt the closure of the San Bruno National Archives facility and the relocation of the facility’s records and artifacts to ensure that local communities continue to have direct access to materials reflecting their histories and stories.
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BACKGROUND:
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the Nation’s official record keeper, tasked with safeguarding and providing public access to essential legal and historical documents that tell the complete history of the United States and its people. NARA has over 40 facilities across the US, including the headquarters in Washington, D.C., 16 Presidential Libraries, and regional archives and records centers.
NARA’s regional archives program was established to ensure that records created by federal agencies across the country remain in the general region where they were created, ensuring that the public has access to federal records created in their regions. In June 2026, NARA announced plans to close two of the eleven regional archives, one in Chicago and the other in San Mateo County located in the Leo J. Ryan Memorial Federal Building at 1000 Commodore Drive, San Bruno, California (“San Bruno National Archives”). The San Bruno National Archives are to be closed within three years and all its records and artifacts relocated to other NARA facilities.
The San Bruno National Archives holds more than 75,000 cubic feet of invaluable historical records dating back to the 1850s and serves as the repository for Northern and Central California, Nevada, Hawaii, United States Navy bases on foreign territory in the Pacific and Far East, American Samoa, Guam, and the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
DISCUSSION:
Removing records from the San Bruno National Archives and dispersing them to distant, unspecified federal facilities creates an insurmountable geographic barrier for local communities, essentially erasing accessible public evidence of our local communities and their history in the United States.
The San Bruno National Archives is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of records detailing the Asian American experience, including hundreds of thousands of investigative case files related to the Chinese Exclusion Act, World War II incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans, and arrival records from the Angel Island Immigration Station. It contains priceless primary sources, including personal family photographs, letters written from home villages, marriage certificates, and the original files of landmark civil rights cases, including United States v. Wong Kim Ark, a 1898 Supreme Court decision that established birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment, which was reaffirmed by a Supreme Court ruling in June 2026.
The San Bruno National Archives’ resources and public programs are indispensable lifelines for historians, researchers, students, and archival scientists, as well as individuals tracing their ancestry and attempting to enhance and correct historical narratives. Nationally acclaimed history and education institutions like the Chinese Historical Society of America and National Japanese American Historical Society rely on the National Archives at San Francisco to ensure that stories of local communities continue to be told and that the history of the United States remains whole.
COMMUNITY IMPACT:
Adoption of the resolution seeking to halt the closure of the San Bruno National Archives and the relocation of its records and artifacts will help to ensure that all San Mateo County residents continue to have direct access to invaluable materials reflecting our community’s unique history.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no new Net County Cost associated with this resolution.