Republican Texas Rep. Brian Babin and 44 other House Republicans are demanding that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) remove “harmful content” warnings from online copies of Founding-era documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
“The role of the National Archives should be to preserve our shared histories and educate future generations, not to deny, change, or demonize our past,” the Republicans wrote to Archivist of the U.S. David Ferriero, in a letter obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller. NARA announced in late July that it would institute the labels, which warn of “racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir, and xenophobic opinions and attitudes.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Arizona Attorney General Condemns Biden Administration’s Warning Lab On Constitution, Declaration)
Babin is not the first Republican member of Congress to express concern about the warning labels. Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford also called for NARA to remove them, as has Republican Alabama Rep. Gary Palmer.
The Republicans accused Ferriero and NARA of “weaponizing words and needlessly politicizing the American story” by instituting the content warnings.
NARA instituted the warning labels following a recommendation from an internal Task Force on Racism. The Task Force, convened by Ferriero in response to an early executive order from President Joe Biden, urged the independent federal agency to “work toward dismantling structural racism” and provide “training on topics such as diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion.”
The content warnings do not point to specific language in the documents that are “harmful.” NARA told Fox News on Sept. 16 that the warning label “automatically appears at the top of every page” on the National Archives’ online catalog.
“The Left’s cancel culture has launched a full-frontal assault on the very documents that make up the foundation of our nation’s story, and I will not stand idly by and watch,” Babin told the Daily Caller. “The National Archives exists to preserve our shared stories and educate future generations on the trials and triumphs of our history, not to deny, change, or demonize our past. The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights were written to protect the freedoms and God-given rights of every American. Promoting anything other than this truth is not only a misrepresentation of our history, but a dereliction of duty. The National Archives should remove these ludicrous warnings immediately and resume their true mission.”
Read the letter here: