State Congressman Mullin at a press conference outside the National Archives at San Francisco (located in San Bruno) on Aug. 24.

Mullin’s bill, H.R. 10131, comes in response to advocacy by historians and Asian American immigrant and civil rights advocates who have collected almost 14,000 signatures in just the past month on petitions to keep the federal records centers here and in Chicago open. A similar federal records center in Seattle may also be at risk. The Mullin bill would bar the archivist from closing records centers or moving the records themselves for more than six months if facilities are restructured or repaired. Five House Democrats have now cosponsored the Mullin bill while 36 House members and senators have joined his Letter of Congressional inquiry to the archivist… (more)