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Wednesday, Sep. 29, 2021

Did a COVID-19 surge around St. Louis cut off veterans’ access to needed records?

Jacob Alabab-Moser, Gigafact
yes

In early August, a government processing center in St. Louis relied on by military veterans cut operations in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the area. 

The National Personnel Records Center, part of the National Archives, reduced staffing and operations to 10% of normal. The agency's policy limits facility occupancy during periods of high community transmission to 25% or less. With many records still on paper, such reductions impede response times.

The center has been accepting emergency requests associated with medical treatments, burials and homeless veterans, but is closed to the public and not servicing most records requests.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers recently called on the Biden administration to address the center’s backlog, which has persisted despite special Congressional funding of $50 million in December 2020.

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