Archivists and advocates urge Council to restore funding after mayor moves to cancel new UDC archives site

Public witnesses, professional archivists and nonprofit supporters pressed the Committee on Executive Administration and Labor on June 6 to restore funding for a planned state archives building at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), after the mayor’s FY26 budget proposed cancelling the project and shifting planning toward alternatives.

Multiple witnesses cited a decade of planning, professional facility studies and a signed MOU with UDC that, they said, make the UDC Van Ness site the best location for a modern, accessible DC Archives. Trudy Peterson of the Friends of the DC Archives, archivist Katharina Herring, Bill Rice of the Committee of 100 and Friends of the DC Archives, Carl Bergman and representatives of the DC Archives Foundation described the UDC plan as the product of professional assessments and community review, and they warned that abandoning the site now would waste millions already spent and set back archival access for researchers and students.

At the hearing Secretary of the District of Columbia Kimberly Bassett and State Archivist Dr. Lopez Matthews appeared for the Office of the Secretary and answered committee questions. The Office of the Secretary…