Jim,

I know you are not the webmaster of the PA in the Civil War message board. My intent in my statement was to alert your many readers that if they had already read my statement on that message board, they probably wouldn't want to read it again.

I, too, am an registered independent researcher at the Archives, and from chatting with the staff, I am aware of the recent cuts in staff and how overworked those that remain are. For example, you mention that your staff has had to request a pension file several times. My guess is that files that used to be refiled within a few days or a week, probably aren't getting refiled in a timely fashion because of staff cutbacks.

In my view, money is a large part of the problem.