Puzzling Fact: Trade Envoys May Not Text Foreign Counterparts

The new global dependency on social media has forced all agencies to revise their archiving habits to comply with the updated 1950 Federal Records Act. But employees of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative are caught in a bind, Government Executive has learned.

While many of the foreign officials with whom they negotiate think nothing of dashing off a text message, USTR staff are barred from using that instant tool. “For ease of record keeping, text messaging services have been disabled for [Executive Office of the President] employees except in cases of emergency,” an administration official confirmed while requesting anonymity.

Unlike the State Department—whose diplomats may text internationally as often as they like—USTR is part of the president’s executive office, and the White House has apparently concluded that record-keeping of its trade-related texts might be risky or burdensome.

Asked for clarification, an Office of Management and Budget spokesman referred queries to specific agencies, notably the National Archives and Records Administration. “There is nothing in the Federal Records Act that precludes agencies from conducting official business using texts, so long as the agency properly manages any text records,” spokeswoman Miriam Kleiman wrote in an email, citing an Archives primer on instant messaging, texts and chats. 

“Many text records will likely be ‘transitory’ in nature, and not require longer-term preservation. To the extent an agency employee creates or receives substantive records via text, then they have a responsibility to ensure that such records are preserved for the required time period. If the agency cannot establish a method for ensuring long-term preservation of text records, then employees should not use texts for that purpose.”  

A State Department spokesman reported that the in-house records officer had never heard of any restrictions on texting at State or any agency, provided that normal records management and preservation responsibilities are fulfilled. “Taken literally,” the officer said, “one might conclude that text messages should not be sent or received in the conduct of State Department business if they cannot be adequately preserved, but there is no restriction on using this method of communication due to any perceived or actual difficulty associated with preserving texts for record keeping purposes.”

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