[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5065 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5065

To amend the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act to extend the authority of 
the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group for 2 years, to 
  express the sense of Congress regarding the cooperation of foreign 
nations with such Group in carrying out its duties under such Act, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 27, 2000

   Mrs. Maloney of New York (for herself, Mr. Horn, and Mr. Waxman) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act to extend the authority of 
the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group for 2 years, to 
  express the sense of Congress regarding the cooperation of foreign 
nations with such Group in carrying out its duties under such Act, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Nazi and Japanese War Crimes 
Disclosure Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) In 1999, Congress adopted the Nazi War Crimes 
        Disclosure Act (Public Law 105-246) requiring the executive 
        branch to identify any still-classified records in its custody 
        relating to Nazi war crimes, war criminals, persecution, and 
        looted assets and to declassify and release these records to 
        the American public. Under terms of that legislation, the 
        President established the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency 
        Working Group to carry out the functions required in the 
        legislation.
            (2) In its first year, the Interagency Working Group 
        screened more than 600,000,000 pages of material relating to 
        Nazi war crimes and has declassified 1,500,000 pages and opened 
        them to the public at the National Archives.
            (3) While the Interagency Working Group has worked 
        diligently to screen materials and declassify millions of pages 
        of material, the limited resources in both staff and funding 
        available to the Interagency Working Group threatens their 
        ability to complete the functions required by the Nazi War 
        Crimes Disclosure Act.
            (4) Already, significant new information about the 
        Holocaust has been revealed in the more than 400,000 Office of 
        Strategic Services records released by the Interagency Working 
        Group at the National Archives on June 26, 2000. However, 
        further revelations depend on adequate staff support and 
        funding for the Interagency Working Group.
            (5) The remarkable progress that has been made by the 
        Interagency Working Group has been achieved even though the 
        Congress has not appropriated funds for the support of the 
        Interagency Working Group or for the activities carried out by 
        the various agencies which hold the records. Without the 
        resources to review the materials being released, it will be 
        years before we truly understand the significance of what is 
        contained in the declassified materials.
            (6) The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act charged the 
        Interagency Working Group with reviewing all records that 
        pertain to World War II, under the direction of, or in 
        association with the Nazi Government of Germany, any government 
        occupied by the military of the Nazi Government, and any 
        government that was an ally of the Nazi Government, which 
        includes the Japanese Government's records.
            (7) After the end of World War II, the United States 
        returned more than 18,000,000 pages of captured Japanese 
        records to the Japanese Government at their request.
            (8) In order to complete the Congressional directives of 
        the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, the Interagency Working 
        Group should review the materials that were returned to Japan. 
        Therefore, the full cooperation of the Japanese Government to 
        assist the Interagency Working Group in reviewing all of the 
        World War II records is desired to insure that these historic 
        records can be reviewed, released, or otherwise made available 
        to the public in a timely and efficient manner.
            (9) The Interagency Working Group has been working 
        diligently to expedite their charge under the Nazi War Crimes 
        Disclosure Act, but the original authorization for three years 
        will not allow for the completion of the momentous tasks 
        outlined in the legislation, specifically in terms of 
        completing the review of the records pertaining to the Japanese 
        government.

SEC. 3. EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF AUTHORITY OF NAZI WAR CRIMINAL 
              RECORDS INTERAGENCY WORKING GROUP.

    (a) Extension of Authority.--Section 2(b)(1) of the Nazi War Crimes 
Disclosure Act (Pub. Law 105-246; 5 U.S.C. 552 note) is amended by 
striking ``3 years'' and inserting ``5 years''.
    (b) Records Included.--Section 3(a)(2)(A) of such Act is amended by 
striking ``beginning on March 23, 1933, and ending on May 8, 1945'' and 
inserting ``beginning on January 1, 1931, and ending on December 31, 
1945''.
    (c) Modification of Name of Working Group.--Such Act is further 
amended by striking ``Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working 
Group'' in each place such term appears and inserting ``Nazi and 
Japanese War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group''.
    (d) Authorization of Appropriations.--Section 2(d) of such Act is 
amended to read as follows:
    ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated for the Interagency Working Group to carry out this 
section, $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2001 and 2002.''.
    (e) Amendment to Title.--Section 1 of such Act is amended by 
striking ``Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act'' and inserting ``Nazi and 
Japanese War Crimes of World War II Disclosure Act''.

SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING COOPERATION OF FOREIGN NATIONS.

    It is the sense of Congress that foreign nations, and in particular 
the nation of Japan, should make every effort possible to cooperate 
with the Nazi and Japanese War Criminal Records Interagency Working 
Group established by section 2 of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act 
(Public Law 105-246; 5 U.S.C. 552 note) in carrying out the duties of 
the Group under such Act.
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