So? Who enforces this requirement?
Answer: No one.
#13. There is a statute/law which makes the Archivist of the United States the “holder/protector” of specifically named types of federal documents. For example, NARA holds federal court case documents, many at the main Archives in DC (I’ve had legal access to them for a court case).
The Archives itself is one of many types of “federal repositories” for federal documents, as are NARA-directed Federal Records Centers (Holding facilities before documents are sent to the GSA for Indexing and then to NARA for permanent storage).
Again I’ve been deeply involved in stopping the govt from destroying old records which NOW have a Litigation value they may not have had decades or centuries ago. This also included thousands of boxes of military contracts and possibly historical records from WW2, etc.
The governing law is the “Federal Preservation Act” which specifically concerns legal documents, many, if not all Congressional documents (the Reds in Congress have been try9ng to destroy them for over 50 years, led by the deceased probable Communist Party USA member/definitely lifelong supporter and KGB contact, Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich), Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY)(d), reportedly a cover CPUSA member along with her husband (d) and very likely KGB asset (re her connections to the KGB legal front, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers). Reported documents about her Party membership have not been found at the Archives despite govt intelligence researchers having told me that they saw them, and in specific files. I tried to have them found. No success and with the Archives being closed for years due t COVID and incompetency, I probably never will be able to search for them again. (Internal security people feel that they may have been destroyed on purpose, esp. with the late Conyers and Rep. Rodino (D-NJ with possible mob connection, who tried to have them sealed for 75 years (way beyond the legal law limit for sealing them) and Conyers tried to have them destroyed en toto (I was privy to internal Democrat Party plans for this to happen through congressmen involved in the attempts to save them - I was a reporter and later a congressional staffer with access to committee staff the normal reporter wouldn’t have).
Long but I hope this gives you some insight into the issue of “records preservation” in and by the federal government.