The National Archives will eliminate evening and Saturday hours for their DC-area facilities under a proposed rule published in the Federal Register yesterday. Currently the public researcher reading rooms are open until 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and open from 8:45 until 4:45 on Saturday. Under the proposed schedule the facilities would be open to researchers from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, and Saturday hours would be eliminated.
The National Archives and Records Administration is facing a budget crisis due to inadequate Congressional funding, rising energy costs, and expenses related to the flooding of their DC building earlier this summer. The organization the National Coalition for History issued an alert in June describing some of the cost-cutting NARA may be forced to implement.
> Federal Register: “Changes in NARA Research Room and Museum Hours“