Sponsor
Thomas Kean
Representative · R-NJ
Representative · R-NJ
The bill secures preservation and public access to firsthand 9/11 testimonies—benefitting education, research, and collective memory—while trading off privacy and trauma risks for survivors and exposing the program to funding uncertainty, potential taxpayer costs, and demands on Library resources.
Students, researchers, and the general public gain a searchable, indexed digital archive of firsthand 9/11 oral and written accounts that preserves primary sources for education and scholarship.
Survivors, veterans, and families will have personal testimonies preserved (with priority for older survivors), increasing the likelihood that firsthand experiences are captured before they are lost and helping collective memory and historical research.
The law provides initial federal funding (a $250,000 appropriation in FY2026) and authority for 'such sums as may be necessary' in later years, enabling program startup and a mechanism for continued funding without annual reauthorization.
Survivors and families risk renewed trauma and privacy harms because recordings, letters, diaries, and sensitive details could become publicly accessible, and soliciting private materials may burden families to locate or relinquish personal items.
The single small FY2026 appropriation ($250,000) may be insufficient to implement the program fully, risking delayed, scaled-back, or partial implementation until additional funds are provided.
Open-ended authority for future funding ('such sums as may be necessary') creates potential unspecified future costs for taxpayers because later-year spending is not capped.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Creates a Library of Congress oral history program to collect, catalog, preserve, and publicly share 9/11 survivors' audio/video and written histories, with initial funding and donation authority.
Official title: To establish a program in the Library of Congress for the collection of oral histories related to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 10, 2026 by Thomas Kean · Last progress September 10, 2026
Creates an oral history program at the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center to collect, catalog, preserve, and make publicly available audio, video, and written personal histories from survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The bill authorizes an initial $250,000 for FY2026, allows acceptance of donations placed into a dedicated gift account, and permits the Librarian and Center director to partner with outside organizations to carry out the program. The Director of the American Folklife Center must begin collecting recordings as soon as practicable (with priority for older survivors), build a public collection and catalog (including digital access through the National Digital Library as resources allow), and solicit related written materials; funding beyond the initial year is authorized as “such sums as may be necessary.”