[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 155 (Monday, October 15, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12832-S12833]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT AMENDMENTS OF 2007

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I rise to discuss the Presidential 
Records Act Amendments of 2007.
  The Presidential Records Act of 1978 declared a President's papers 
were the property of the people of the United States and were to be 
administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. The 
act provided that Presidential papers would be available 12 years after 
a President left office, allowing the former or incumbent President the 
right to claim executive privilege for particularly sensitive 
documents.
  In order to fulfill that mandate--that mandate that was in the 1978 
law--President Reagan, in 1989, signed Executive Order 12667, which 
gave the former or incumbent President 30 days to claim executive 
privilege.
  However, in 2001, early in his administration, President Bush issued 
Executive Order 13233, and this executive order by President Bush 
nullified President Reagan's order and imposed new regulations for 
obtaining Presidential and Vice Presidential documents. President 
Bush's new order greatly restricts access to Presidential papers by 
requiring that all requests for documents, no matter how innocuous, be 
approved by both the former President, whose papers are involved, and 
also by the current White House occupant. There is no time limit to the 
White House review, and the right to review and assert executive 
privilege has been extended by President Bush in his Executive order to 
include the Vice President and to include Presidential family members. 
In this way, the order goes against the spirit of the Presidential 
Records Act and against the letter of the Presidential Records Act by 
creating a presumption of nondisclosure and expanding the executive 
privilege claim, thus allowing the White House to prevent the release 
of records literally for generations in the future.

  H.R. 1255, the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007--which is 
the bill I came to the floor to speak about--was passed in the House by 
a vote of 333 to 93 on June 20 of this year. I introduced a similar 
bill, S. 886, in March of this year in the Senate. The bill I 
introduced is a bipartisan bill which is cosponsored by Senators 
Cornyn, Leahy, Sununu, Feinstein, and Obama. Two weeks ago, Senator 
Feinstein sought unanimous consent for the Senate to proceed to H.R. 
1255, but an objection was heard from another Senator.

[[Page S12833]]

  H.R. 1255 is a bipartisan bill that merely seeks to clarify the 
process under which the Presidential Records Act is to be implemented. 
The bill seeks to nullify President Bush's Executive order by limiting 
claims of executive privilege to the President and to former Presidents 
in requiring that the President notify the Archivist of any claims of 
executive privilege within 60 days preceding a notice of a request for 
a document with an additional 30 days if requested. These measures 
essentially return the process to the procedural framework that had 
been in place since President Reagan issued his original Executive 
order.
  This is an important matter that deserves to be brought to a vote in 
the Senate. There is strong bipartisan support for the reasonable 
approach to the Presidential Records Act that is contained in H.R. 
1255. Now is not the time, in my view, for political ploys but for, 
instead, a thoughtful debate and an ultimate vote on this bill.
  Two weeks ago, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia 
ruled that Executive Order 13233 is, in part--this is the Executive 
order President Bush entered--invalid in requiring the Archivist of the 
United States to delay release of the records of former Presidents at 
their request as permitted under the order. The Court found that the 
Archivist's reliance on section 3(b) of that Executive order is without 
constitutional basis and violates the Administrative Procedures Act. 
This holding gives us clear direction in legislatively addressing the 
problems that have arisen as a result of Executive Order 13233.
  Under the Presidential Records Act, there is a clear and an 
unequivocal assumption that the records of a President's administration 
belong to the people of this Nation, barring the national security 
interests or an executive privilege claim. The people of this Nation 
hired the President. His work is undertaken on behalf of the people. 
Can anyone doubt that the Nation is made stronger and our Government 
and the electorate are better served by the study of the actions of 
past Presidents? This is not a matter of trying to uncover dark 
secrets; rather, it is in everyone's interests and certainly in the 
interests of this Nation that scholars, students, and the public have 
access to the records of former Presidents in order to fully understand 
and appreciate the work of those Presidents and to provide guidance for 
future Presidents and future administrations.
  I strongly urge that H.R. 1255 be brought to the Senate floor for 
debate and for ultimate passage.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, would the Senator withhold?
  Mr. BINGAMAN. I certainly do withhold.

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