[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 89 (Monday, June 23, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H4149-H4150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




EXTENDING AUTHORIZATION OF JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW 
                                 BOARD

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 1553) to amend the President John F. Kennedy Assassination 
Records Collection Act of 1992 to extend the authorization of the 
Assassination Records Review Board until September 30, 1998.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 1553

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

     SECTION 1. EXTENSION OF AUTHORIZATION OF ASSASSINATION 
                   RECORDS REVIEW BOARD.

       The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records 
     Collection Act of 1992 (44 U.S.C. 2107 note) is amended--
       (1) in section 7(o)(1), by striking ``September 30, 1996'' 
     and all that follows through the end of the paragraph and 
     inserting ``September 30, 1998,''; and
       (2) in section 13(a), by striking ``such sums'' and all 
     that follows through ``expended'' and inserting ``to carry 
     out the provisions of this Act $1,600,000 for fiscal year 
     1998''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Texas [Mr. Sessions] and the gentleman from California [Mr. Waxman] 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Sessions].
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1553 is extension of authorization of the 
Assassination Records Review Board. Mr. Speaker, the House is 
considering a very important piece of legislation, H.R. 1553, which 
extends the authorization of the Assassination Records Review Board for 
1 year and authorizes $1.5 million for the review board to complete its 
final work, which will be done during fiscal year 1998.
  This bill was introduced by the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton], 
chairman of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight on May 8, 
1997, and included as its original cosponsors the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Waxman] and the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Stokes], who 
sponsored the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Reports 
Collection Act, and who also chaired the House Select Committee on 
Assassinations.
  In 1992, almost 30 years after the assassination of President 
Kennedy, nearly 1 million records compiled by official investigators of 
the assassination still have not been made public. Congress decided to 
set up a process for reviewing and releasing to the public the records 
surrounding the Kennedy assassination. The result was that on October 
26, 1992, President Bush signed the President John F. Kennedy 
Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 into law. The original act 
provided a 3-year timetable for a review board to complete its work.
  Unfortunately, extensive delays in the appointment of the review 
board's members delayed the board from beginning its work in a timely 
manner. In 1994, Congress restarted the clock and extended the 1992 
law's termination date for 1 year until September 30, 1996. The review 
board subsequently exercised its authority under the statute to 
continue operating for 1 additional year.
  I believe that the public has a right to know what is contained in 
the Federal Government's records on the Kennedy assassination. By 
releasing these documents to the public, we advance the cause of total 
accountability to the citizens of our country. As a representative of 
the city of Dallas, TX, I want to assure the American people that all 
Texans from all over the State will stop at nothing less than knowing 
the whole truth about this tragedy as it occurred in our Nation's 
history.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1553 extends the authorization of the Assassination 
Review Board for just one year to allow the board to finish reviewing, 
and then to make public, the records relating to the assassination of 
our President John F. Kennedy. Under current law, the authorization 
expires at the end of fiscal year 1997.
  In his testimony last month before the Subcommittee on National 
Security, International Affairs and Criminal Justice, review board 
chairman John Tunheim assured the members of this subcommittee that 
only 1 additional year would be needed for the board to finish 
reviewing and releasing the remaining documents related to the Kennedy 
assassination and to issue its final report. I believe that it is 
important that we see this progress through to its conclusion, and 
accordingly, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

                              {time}  1315

  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in support of the reauthorization of the JFK Assassination 
Review Board. The board has performed a valuable service to the public 
in guiding the release of over a million pages of information relating 
to the assassination of President Kennedy. Unfortunately, the work is 
not complete. This bill will give the review board an additional year 
to finish the task, and the board has assured us that 1 year is 
sufficient.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1553, 
which I introduced in

[[Page H4150]]

May, along with Congressman Henry Waxman and Congressman Louis Stokes.
  H.R. 1553 amends the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection 
Act of 1992 to provide one additional year for the Assassination 
Records Review Board to complete its work, which is to review and 
publicly release documents relating to the Kennedy assassination at the 
earliest possible date. The American people have a right to demand 
accountability by the Federal Government regarding the Kennedy 
assassination records. By allowing the Review Board to finish its work 
and make the Kennedy assassination documents public, Congress will 
demonstrate to Americans that the Government has nothing to hide.
  H.R. 1553 would extend the Review Board's September 30, 1997, 
termination date under current law to September 30, 1998. H.R. 1553 
authorizes $1.6 million in fiscal year 1998 for this purpose. I would 
note that Congressman Stokes, who is an original cosponsor of my bill, 
sponsored the 1992 act in the House and chaired the House Select 
Committee on Assassinations that was established in 1976.
  The purpose of the 1992 legislation was to publicly release records 
relating to the Kennedy assassination at the earliest possible date. 
The Assassination Records Review Board was set up to review and release 
the voluminous amounts of information in the Government's possession. 
The FBI, the Secret Service, the CIA, the Warren Commission, the 
Rockefeller Commission, the Church Committee in the Senate, and the 
House Select Committee on Assassinations have all held assassination 
records, and related documents have also been in the possession of 
certain State and local authorities as well as private citizens.
  When the 1992 legislation was considered, nearly 1 million pages of 
data compiled by official investigations of the assassination had not 
been made available to the public, some 30 years after the tragedy. In 
creating the Review Board, Congress believed that simply making all 
relevant information available to the public was the best way to 
respond to the continuing high level of interest in the Kennedy 
assassination, and was preferable to undertaking a new congressional 
investigation. The 1992 law requires the Review Board to presume that 
documents relating to the assassination should be made public unless 
there is clear and convincing evidence to the contrary.
  As a result of the Review Board's efforts, more than 14,000 documents 
have been transferred to the National Archives and Records 
Administration for inclusion in the JFK collection. That collection now 
totals approximately 3.7 million pages and is used extensively by 
researchers from all over the United States. The Review Board was in 
the news in April of this year when it voted to make public the Abraham 
Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination.
  The John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 
originally provided a 3-year timetable for the Assassination Records 
Review Board to complete its work. Unfortunately, there were lengthy 
delays in the appointment of board members, and as a consequence, the 
Review Board was scheduled to cease operations before it began its 
work. Therefore, in 1994, Congress ``restarted the clock'' by extending 
the 1992 law's termination date for 1 year, to September 30, 1996. The 
Review Board subsequently exercised its authority to continue operating 
for one additional year, until September 30, 1997. Because the review 
process proved to be more complex and time-consuming than anticipated, 
the President included in his fiscal year 1998 budget a request for a 
1-year extension of the Review Board's authorization.
  I support the Assassination Records Review Board's request for a 1-
year extension of its authorization so that it can complete its mission 
in a professional and thorough manner. However, let me make it very 
clear that, as chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight 
Committee, I do not intend to support any additional extension of the 
Review Board's life beyond September 30, 1998. On June 4, 1997, the 
chairman of the Review Board, John Tunheim, testified before the 
National Security, International Affairs, and Criminal Justice 
Subcommittee, and in his testimony he assured the subcommittee that one 
additional year would be sufficient for the Review Board to finish its 
work.
  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1553.
  Mr. STOKES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for 
yielding to me. I rise in support of this bill and I want to commend 
Chairman Burton and ranking Member Mr. Waxman for bringing this bill to 
the floor. As an original cosponsor of this legislation, and as the 
former chairman of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, I have 
a strong interest in this issue.
  In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations completed a 2-
year investigation of the facts and circumstances surrounding the 
assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The completed investigation 
included the publishing of 9 volumes of hearings with the testimony of 
55 witnesses and 619 exhibits.
  In the years following the Assassination Committee's work, old issues 
and new theories continued to surface about the assassination of 
President Kennedy. Therefore in 1992, I authored, and the Congress 
passed, the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collect 
Act. This law created the Assassination Records Review Board which was 
given the responsibility to identify, secure, and make available, all 
records related to the assassination of President Kennedy. We felt that 
an independent board would represent the most effective and efficient 
vehicle to make all assassination records available to the public.
  To date, the Assassination Records Review Board has acted to transfer 
more than 14,000 documents to the JFK collection at the National 
Archives. The collection currently totals 3.7 million pages. It is used 
extensively by researchers from all over the United States. Further, by 
the end of fiscal year 1997, the Review Board will have reviewed and 
processed assassination records that more than 30 different government 
offices have identified, not including files of the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.
  Becase of the Review Board's diligent efforts, some very important 
documents have been made public. They include: thousands of CIA 
documents on Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of President 
Kennedy; thousands of records from the House Assassinations Committee, 
including a staff report of Oswald's travel to Mexico City; thousands 
of records from the FBI which document the agency's interest in Oswald 
before the Kennedy assassination; and extensive FBI files on its 
investigation of the assassination.
  Mr. Speaker, it is our understanding that the Review Board will need 
more time to process the classified records that remain, primarily 
records from the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation. The additional year will permit the review board to 
complete this work, close out the operation, and submit its final 
report.
  It is a credit to this institution that we can provide historians and 
the American public with all relevant information concerning the 
assassination of President Kennedy. It is my belief that we should 
allow the Assassination Records Review Board to complete this important 
undertaking. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the passage 
of H.R. 1553.
  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Petri). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Sessions] that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1553.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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