[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14486-14497]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  ELECTRONIC MESSAGE PRESERVATION ACT

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1318, I call up 
the bill (H.R. 5811) to amend title 44, United States Code, to require 
preservation of certain electronic records by Federal agencies, to 
require a certification and reports relating to Presidential records, 
and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

[[Page 14487]]



                               H.R. 5811

       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 ``Electronic Communications 
     Preservation Act''.

     SEC. 2. PRESERVATION OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS.

       (a) Requirement for Preservation of Electronic 
     Communications.--
       (1) In general.--Chapter 31 of title 44, United States 
     Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 
     section:

     ``Sec. 3108. Electronic communications

       ``(a) Regulations Required.--Not later than 18 months after 
     the date of the enactment of this section, the Archivist 
     shall promulgate regulations governing agency preservation of 
     electronic communications that are records. Such regulations 
     shall, at a minimum--
       ``(1) require the electronic capture, management, and 
     preservation of such electronic records;
       ``(2) require that such electronic records are readily 
     accessible for retrieval through electronic searches;
       ``(3) establish mandatory minimum functional requirements 
     and a software certification testing process to certify 
     electronic records management applications to be used by 
     Federal agencies for purposes of complying with the 
     requirements in paragraphs (1) and (2); and
       ``(4) include timelines for agency compliance with the 
     regulations that ensure compliance as expeditiously as 
     practicable but not later than four years after the date of 
     the enactment of this section.
       ``(b) Coverage of Other Electronic Records.--To the extent 
     practicable, the regulations promulgated under subsection (a) 
     shall also include requirements for the capture, management, 
     and preservation of other electronic records.
       ``(c) Compliance by Federal Agencies.--Each Federal agency 
     shall comply with the regulations promulgated under 
     subsection (a).
       ``(d) Review of Regulations Required.--The Archivist shall 
     periodically review and, as necessary, amend the regulations 
     promulgated under this section.
       ``(e) Reports on Implementation of Regulations.--
       ``(1) Agency report to archivist.--Not later than four 
     years after the date of the enactment of this section, the 
     head of each Federal agency shall submit to the Archivist a 
     report on the agency's compliance with the regulations 
     promulgated under this section.
       ``(2) Archivist report to congress.--Not later than 90 days 
     after receipt of all reports required by paragraph (1), the 
     Archivist shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security 
     and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on 
     Oversight and Government Reform of the House of 
     Representatives a report on Federal agency compliance with 
     the regulations promulgated under this section.''.
       (2) Clerical amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 
     31 of title 44, United States Code, is amended by adding 
     after the item relating to section 3107 the following new 
     item:

``3108. Electronic communications.''.

       (b) Definition of Electronic Records Management 
     Application.--Section 2901 of title 44, United States Code, 
     is amended--
       (1) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (14);
       (2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (15) and 
     inserting ``; and''; and
       (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
       ``(16) the term `electronic records management application' 
     means a software system designed to manage electronic records 
     within an information technology system, including by 
     categorizing and locating records, identifying records that 
     are due for disposition, and storing, retrieving, and 
     disposing of records stored in a repository.''.

     SEC. 3. PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS.

       (a) Additional Regulations Relating to Presidential 
     Records.--
       (1) In general.--Section 2206 of title 44, United States 
     Code, is amended--
       (A) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (4);
       (B) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (5) and 
     inserting ``; and''; and
       (C) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(5) provisions for establishing standards necessary for 
     the economical and efficient management of Presidential 
     records during the President's term of office, including--
       ``(A) records management controls necessary for the 
     capture, management, and preservation of electronic 
     communications;
       ``(B) records management controls necessary to ensure that 
     electronic communications are readily accessible for 
     retrieval through electronic searches; and
       ``(C) a software certification testing process to certify 
     the electronic records management application to be used by 
     the President for the purposes of complying with the 
     requirements in subparagraphs (A) and (B).''.
       (2) Definition.--Section 2201 of title 44, United States 
     Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 
     paragraph:
       ``(6) The term `electronic records management application' 
     has the meaning provided in section 2901(16) of this 
     title.''.
       (b) Certification of President's Management of Presidential 
     Records.--
       (1) Certification required.--Chapter 22 of title 44, United 
     States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following 
     new section:

     ``Sec. 2208. Certification of the President's management of 
       Presidential records

       ``(a) Annual Certification.--The Archivist shall annually 
     certify whether the records management controls established 
     by the President meet requirements under sections 2203(a) and 
     2206(5) of this title.
       ``(b) Report to Congress.--The Archivist shall report 
     annually to the Committee on Homeland Security and 
     Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on 
     Oversight and Government Reform of the House of 
     Representatives on the status of the certification.''.
       (2) Clerical amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 
     22 of title 44, United States Code, is amended by adding at 
     the end the following new item:

``2208. Certification of the President's management of Presidential 
              records.''.

       (c) Report to Congress.--Section 2203(f) of title 44, 
     United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 
     following:
       ``(4) One year following the conclusion of a President's 
     term of office, or if a President serves consecutive terms 
     one year following the conclusion of the last term, the 
     Archivist shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security 
     and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on 
     Oversight and Government Reform of the House of 
     Representatives a report on--
       ``(A) the volume and format of Presidential records 
     deposited into that President's Presidential archival 
     depository; and
       ``(B) whether the records management controls of that 
     President met the requirements under sections 2203(a) and 
     2206(5) of this title.''.
       (d) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section 
     shall take effect one year after the date of the enactment of 
     this Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 1318, the 
amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in the bill is adopted 
and the bill, as amended, is considered read.
  The text of the bill, as amended, is as follows:

                               H.R. 5811

       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 ``Electronic Message 
     Preservation Act''.

     SEC. 2. PRESERVATION OF ELECTRONIC MESSAGES.

       (a) Requirement for Preservation of Electronic Messages.--
       (1) In general.--Chapter 29 of title 44, United States 
     Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 
     section:

     ``Sec. 2911. Electronic messages

       ``(a) Regulations Required.--Not later than 18 months after 
     the date of the enactment of this section, the Archivist 
     shall promulgate regulations governing agency preservation of 
     electronic messages that are records. Such regulations shall, 
     at a minimum--
       ``(1) require the electronic capture, management, and 
     preservation of such electronic records in accordance with 
     the records disposition requirements of chapter 33 of this 
     title;
       ``(2) require that such electronic records are readily 
     accessible for retrieval through electronic searches;
       ``(3) establish mandatory minimum functional requirements 
     for electronic records management systems to ensure 
     compliance with the requirements in paragraphs (1) and (2);
       ``(4) establish a process to certify that Federal agencies' 
     electronic records management systems meet the functional 
     requirements established under paragraph (3); and
       ``(5) include timelines for agency compliance with the 
     regulations that ensure compliance as expeditiously as 
     practicable but not later than four years after the date of 
     the enactment of this section.
       ``(b) Coverage of Other Electronic Records.--To the extent 
     practicable, the regulations promulgated under subsection (a) 
     shall also include requirements for the capture, management, 
     and preservation of other electronic records.
       ``(c) Compliance by Federal Agencies.--Each Federal agency 
     shall comply with the regulations promulgated under 
     subsection (a).
       ``(d) Review of Regulations Required.--The Archivist shall 
     periodically review and, as necessary, amend the regulations 
     promulgated under this section.
       ``(e) Reports on Implementation of Regulations.--
       ``(1) Agency report to archivist.--Not later than four 
     years after the date of the enactment of this section, the 
     head of each Federal agency shall submit to the Archivist a 
     report on the agency's compliance with the regulations 
     promulgated under this section.

[[Page 14488]]

       ``(2) Archivist report to congress.--Not later than 90 days 
     after receipt of all reports required by paragraph (1), the 
     Archivist shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security 
     and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on 
     Oversight and Government Reform of the House of 
     Representatives a report on Federal agency compliance with 
     the regulations promulgated under this section.''.
       (2) Clerical amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 
     29 of title 44, United States Code, is amended by adding 
     after the item relating to section 2910 the following new 
     item:

``2911. Electronic messages.''.

       (b) Definitions.--Section 2901 of title 44, United States 
     Code, is amended--
       (1) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (14);
       (2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (15) and 
     inserting a semicolon; and
       (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
       ``(16) the term `electronic messages' means electronic mail 
     and other electronic messaging systems that are used for 
     purposes of communicating between individuals; and
       ``(17) the term `electronic records management system' 
     means a software system designed to manage electronic records 
     within an information technology system, including by--
       ``(A) categorizing and locating records;
       ``(B) ensuring that records are retained as long as 
     necessary;
       ``(C) identifying records that are due for disposition; and
       ``(D) the storage, retrieval, and disposition of 
     records.''.

     SEC. 3. PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS.

       (a) Additional Regulations Relating to Presidential 
     Records.--
       (1) In general.--Section 2206 of title 44, United States 
     Code, is amended--
       (A) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (3);
       (B) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (4) and 
     inserting ``; and''; and
       (C) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(5) provisions for establishing standards necessary for 
     the economical and efficient management of Presidential 
     records during the President's term of office, including--
       ``(A) records management controls necessary for the 
     capture, management, and preservation of electronic messages;
       ``(B) records management controls necessary to ensure that 
     electronic messages are readily accessible for retrieval 
     through electronic searches; and
       ``(C) a process to certify the electronic records 
     management system to be used by the President for the 
     purposes of complying with the requirements in subparagraphs 
     (A) and (B).''.
       (2) Definition.--Section 2201 of title 44, United States 
     Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 
     paragraphs:
       ``(5) The term `electronic messages' has the meaning 
     provided in section 2901(16) of this title.
       ``(6) The term `electronic records management system' has 
     the meaning provided in section 2901(17) of this title.''.
       (b) Certification of President's Management of Presidential 
     Records.--
       (1) Certification required.--Chapter 22 of title 44, United 
     States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following 
     new section:

     ``Sec. 2208. Certification of the President's management of 
       Presidential records

       ``(a) Annual Certification.--The Archivist shall annually 
     certify whether the records management controls established 
     by the President meet requirements under sections 2203(a) and 
     2206(5) of this title.
       ``(b) Report to Congress.--The Archivist shall report 
     annually to the Committee on Homeland Security and 
     Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on 
     Oversight and Government Reform of the House of 
     Representatives on the status of the certification.''.
       (2) Clerical amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 
     22 of title 44, United States Code, is amended by adding at 
     the end the following new item:

``2208. Certification of the President's management of Presidential 
              records.''.

       (c) Report to Congress.--Section 2203(f) of title 44, 
     United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 
     following:
       ``(4) One year following the conclusion of a President's 
     term of office, or if a President serves consecutive terms 
     one year following the conclusion of the last term, the 
     Archivist shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security 
     and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on 
     Oversight and Government Reform of the House of 
     Representatives a report on--
       ``(A) the volume and format of Presidential records 
     deposited into that President's Presidential archival 
     depository; and
       ``(B) whether the records management controls of that 
     President met the requirements under sections 2203(a) and 
     2206(5) of this title.''.
       (d) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section 
     shall take effect one year after the date of the enactment of 
     this Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay) and 
the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Davis) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Missouri.


                             General Leave

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Missouri?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to recognize and 
yield 5 minutes to the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and 
Government Reform, Mr. Waxman.
  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5811, the 
Electronic Message Preservation Act of 2008, and I want to thank 
Representatives Clay and Hodes for their commitment to oversight and 
accountability and for their hard work on this bill.
  The Electronic Message Preservation Act amends both the Federal 
Records Act and the Presidential Records Act to ensure the preservation 
of e-mail records.
  In recent years, e-mail has become an essential form of communication 
and a key source of information about Federal decision-making. Despite 
the importance of these records, serious deficiencies exist in the way 
e-mails are preserved both by the White House and Federal agencies. The 
preservation of these records must be improved if historians are to 
have access to a complete record of government decision-making and if 
Congress is to perform needed oversight.
  Under President Bush, the White House has allowed senior officials to 
use nongovernmental e-mail accounts maintained by the Republican 
National Committee for official business. An investigation by the 
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that many of these 
e-mails have been destroyed. Other e-mails have been lost because the 
White House relied for 5 years on an e-mail archiving system described 
as ``primitive'' by a former White House information technology 
officer.
  While the problems have been particularly acute under the Bush 
administration, other administrations, including President Clinton, 
have also encountered problems preserving e-mail records.
  To ensure that these Presidential records are appropriately 
preserved, H.R. 5811 directs the Archivist to establish standards for 
the capture, maintenance and preservation of e-mail records and to 
certify that the White House is meeting these standards.
  Committee investigations have also revealed that Federal agencies are 
inconsistent in the management of e-mail records. Most agencies still 
rely on an unreliable ``print and file'' process to preserve e-mail 
records rather than preserving them electronically.
  GAO, in a report released yesterday, found that senior agency 
officials are not compliant with key e-mail preservation requirements. 
GAO reviewed the practices of senior agency officials and determined 
that the e-mails were not retained in adequate record keeping systems, 
making the e-mail records easier to lose or delete and harder to find 
and use.
  This bill would modernize agency record keeping. The bill directs the 
Archivist to issue regulations mandating that within 4 years of the 
enactment of this legislation, all Federal agencies manage and preserve 
their e-mail records electronically.
  Mr. Speaker, some have said that this bill is about preserving 
history. And it is. But it also is about our constitutional 
responsibility for oversight and for holding this and any 
administration accountable. Access to Presidential and Federal records 
helps us do our job. I urge all Members to support this bill.
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5811, the Electronic Message Preservation Act would 
require the preservation of certain electronic records by Federal 
agencies and certification in reports by the National Archives relating 
to Presidential records.
  Why are we taking up this bill? We have been out of session for more 
than a week. We have been getting ready for a month-long recess, and 
this is the best they can offer to discuss on the

[[Page 14489]]

House floor? This is the major bill of the week? Not the housing 
crisis, not gasoline prices, not retirement security for baby boomers, 
we are here today to talk about preservation of electronic records in 
Federal agencies.

                              {time}  1615

  This is the best they can come up with?
  And though the answer to that is appropriately ``yes,'' this bill 
doesn't take the right approach. As I said many times, secure 
information is the lifeblood of effective government. And more often 
than not, in today's society, information takes the form of electronic 
transmissions and e-mails.
  I have personally spent years focusing on government-wide information 
management and policy and have consistently encouraged the Federal 
Government to continue to embrace digital government, expand e-
government initiatives and find more ways to leverage information 
technology.
  With more and more of the government's business conducted 
electronically, we need to make sure our records are protected and 
preserved. Effective government is essential, and an effective 
government depends not only on secure information but on an accurate 
record.
  The majority substitute amendment at markup addressed certain 
technical definitional concerns that we raised. It clarified that the 
legislation would apply to electronic messages rather than electronic 
communications and provided a workable definition of ``electronic 
messages.'' Similarly, based on comments from the National Archives 
that the term ``electronic records management applications'' may limit 
agencies' abilities to adopt changing technologies, the amendment 
clarified that agencies and the White House should rely on broadly 
defined electronic records management systems to manage records.
  At that time, I urged the chairman to continue to refine this bill to 
make sure that we got it right on issues like managing the cost of 
preserving unknown, but presumably vast, electronic databases, how to 
include emerging media in a system, and the functional parameters of 
any requirement that voluminous and varied data be ``searchable.'' 
Those issues have not been addressed in any meaningful way in the 
markup.
  In addition, several issues raised by the Archives and the White 
House remain unresolved as well. For example, Archives believes that 
the annual certification requirement is unprecedented and would be a 
significant departure from accepted and long-standing practice. Also, 
there are several clarifications of terms and definitions asked for by 
the Archives which are not addressed in the bill we're taking up today.
  In addition, among other things, the White House views the bill as 
overturning the historical distinction in law between agency records 
and Presidential records, and the Statement of Administration Policy 
issued yesterday reiterates the White House's veto threat.
  Now, we have to remember the White House in this case is protecting 
the ``institution,'' not the Bush administration. This bill doesn't 
affect the current administration. And our interests here are 
institutional as well. But if we want to legislate, we should do it 
appropriately and thoughtfully, not in some needless rush to somehow 
punish an administration that won't even be affected by this bill.
  I'm not certain that this bill is the appropriate legislation, but I 
do believe legislation is necessary in this area. And I want to work 
with Chairman Waxman and the White House and the Archives on a bill 
that will give appropriate guidelines to agencies and the White House 
on preserving electronic records.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New 
Hampshire (Mr. Hodes).
  Mr. HODES. I thank my distinguished colleague, Mr. Clay, for his 
leadership along with Mr. Waxman on this bill.
  I rise today in strong support of H.R. 5811, the Electronic Message 
Preservation Act. My colleague from Virginia has said that the 
Archivist suggests that the requirement for certification under this 
bill is unprecedented. Well, this bill is filed, in part, as a response 
to White House practices that have been unprecedented and show clearly 
the need for this legislation. The documents, which include e-mails, 
correspondence, memos produced by an administration belong not to the 
President but to the people of the United States.
  This bill will help ensure that these records are preserved properly 
for our future generations, and more importantly, this bill will help 
lift the veil of secrecy that has fallen over our government under this 
administration.
  Every day the President and his staff generate thousands of documents 
on the issues confronting our Nation. These documents contain important 
insights into the way that our government is making decisions that 
affect our lives. Why are those decisions being made? Who benefits? Who 
gets to influence our government leaders?
  We have serious concerns about the way the White House is preserving 
these documents, or not preserving them, and whether the true purpose 
of not preserving them is to hide the dealings from the American 
people. Through the investigations by the House Oversight and 
Government Reform Committee, we have learned that the White House lost 
hundreds of days of e-mail records between the years 2003 and 2005. 
Additionally, it appears that senior officials in the White House have 
been found to be skirting the historical record laws by using an e-mail 
system provided by the Republican National Committee for most of their 
e-mail correspondence.
  For example, Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff, is said to have 
used the RNC system for 95 percent of his e-mail correspondence to 
which the American people will never have access. Under the 
Presidential Records Act, the President has the sole authority to 
manage his records during his time in office. The General 
Accountability Office found that this administration did not keep 
records as it was required to.
  So the question becomes: What were they trying to hide? It is no 
surprise that the administration that leaked Valerie Plame's covert 
identity and organized propaganda to promote a war in Iraq is evading 
record-keeping practices to hide information from the American people. 
This is arguably partisan politics at its worse, and the only remedy is 
more accountability and more sunshine. The Electronic Message 
Preservation Act will help to make sure that these important records 
are kept and help shine light on what our government is doing and why.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to enter for the Record a letter supporting 
this legislation that brings accountability back to the White House. 
The letter was signed by a number of groups that advocate for an open, 
transparent government, including the Government Accountability Project 
and openthegovernment.org.
  Mr. Speaker, the Bush administration has been one of the most 
secretive and least transparent and most closed in American history. We 
still don't know what was said in closed-door meetings with Big Oil 
executives to set our energy policy, and today, we suffer from record-
high gas prices. The secrecy in the White House has prevented officials 
in the White House from being held accountable to the American people.
  The Electronic Message Preservation Act will reform White House 
record keeping and allow the American people to have confidence that 
future administrations will not be able to hide the truth from the 
people of this country or from history.

                                                     July 9, 2008.
     Hon. Henry Waxman,
     Chair, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 
         House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
       Dear Chairman Waxman: We are writing to support the passage 
     of H.R. 5811, the Electronic Message Preservation Act.
       Investigations and reports by your Committee and by several 
     nonprofits document the significant deficiencies in the 
     preservation of e-mail by the federal government.

[[Page 14490]]

     H.R. 5811 directs the Archivist of the United States to 
     establish standards for the capture, management, and 
     preservation of White House e-mails and other electronic 
     communications and to issue regulations requiring agencies to 
     preserve electronic communications in an electronic format. 
     This legislation demonstrates that Congress is paying 
     attention to this serious issue, and taking steps to begin 
     addressing the systemic problems with electronic records in 
     general and electronic communications records that the 
     federal agencies and the White House have failed for too long 
     to address.
       Thank you for your leadership on this critical aspect of 
     government management and accountability. We look forward to 
     working with you on this and other issues in the future.
           Sincerely,
         American Association of Law Libraries, American Library 
           Association, Association of Research Libraries, Common 
           Cause, Essential Information, Freedom of Information, 
           Oklahoma, Government Accountability Project (GAP), 
           iSolon.org, Liberty Coalition, National Coalition 
           Against Censorship, National Coalition for History, 
           Mine Safety and Health News, and Minnesota Coalition on 
           Government Information.
         Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information, National 
           Freedom of Information Coalition, National Security 
           Archives, National Press Club, 9/11 Research Project, 
           Open TheGovernment.org, Peacefire, People For the 
           American Way, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), 
           ReadtheBill.org Foundation, Society of Professional 
           Journalists, and Washington Coalition for Open 
           Government.

  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Let me just note that as the chairman noted in 
his opening remarks, this was not just a Bush administration issue, 
this was a Clinton administration issue as well. Over 2 million e-mails 
were lost from the Vice-President's office, according to the GAO.
  There has been a great deal of attention paid to the White House e-
mails, and the chairman and I are both working to make sure we can 
preserve all the records from this administration. We've had a long-
going investigation on the committee, and a lot of Bush bashing here 
today has become a personal hobby or even a crusade for some.
  I understand the desire to pass legislation and score points, but I 
hope my colleagues recognize that this bill does nothing today to this 
administration. This doesn't take effect until the next administration. 
It's effective 1 year after enactment. So keep in mind these provisions 
affect the next President and the next administration for which there 
is no guidance for the White House, and that's why the need for 
legislation is there.
  Our objection and concern, and something we hope to work with the 
majority on, is that this legislation is currently too broad and it 
gives unlimited authority to the Archivist who doesn't even want it. 
There's got to be a better medium to be able to do that. But if we're 
going to be in the games of blasting the administration which this will 
not even apply to, we can play the game, too.
  I would yield at this point 4 minutes to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Daniel E. Lungren).
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. I thank the gentleman for 
yielding, and I rise in opposition to this bill for the reasons stated 
by the gentleman from Virginia. We could have had a bill here with 
bipartisan support dealing with the problems as they truly exist, but 
instead, we have this bill on the floor.
  The gentleman that just spoke on the other side of the aisle talked 
about the fact that we had unprecedented action by this administration 
and therefore we need to act. The fact of the matter is that what is 
unprecedented, what is unprecedented is the tremendous increase that we 
have had in the cost of gasoline to average Americans back home.
  I just got back from my district. I had two town hall meetings. I met 
with people at a local gas station. I talked with many, many other 
people. They didn't want to know about what we were going to do about 
electronic record keeping, and I do disappoint the gentleman. That was 
not on the tip of their tongues. That was not in the back of their 
brain. They never even thought about it. Frankly, they think we could 
do that some time else. As a matter of fact, since this bill doesn't 
take place until another year, we could do it another time.
  What we should be doing here is responding to the American people who 
are saying, When are you people going to get your act together?
  So I came back hoping that I could find the electronic 
communications, the secret e-mails of the Democratic leadership as to 
what we're going to do about energy. And what I found was the statement 
by one of the aides to one of the top Democrat leaders, and this is 
their energy plan: Right now, our strategy is drive small cars and wait 
for the wind. Drive small cars and wait for the wind.
  I hope everybody across this land understands what the Democratic 
plan for energy appears to be. It basically means, listen, to those of 
you back home, sit down and shut up; you don't know what you're talking 
about. We've got more important things to do. We have to rush back and 
deal with the electronic record keeping bill because that is what is 
going to be most important to the American people.
  Now, I don't know about you, but I haven't found a single person in 
my district who drives with a wind-driven car. And I'm all for wind 
energy, and I'm all for solar energy. They want to know when we're 
going to do something about bringing the cost down.
  Now soon, we might hear from the Democratic side they're going to 
bring a bill to suspend the laws of economics, and they're going to 
tell us that supply and demand no longer prevail. Maybe that's the new 
magic we're waiting for. But that won't satisfy the people in my 
district. I'm in a small community in the foothills. The people I met 
in the Delta, in Rio Vista, the folks I met in Citrus Heights, the 
folks I was talking to in the Sacramento area, they demand that we do 
something now. And what we ought to be doing is drill here. That's in 
America. Drill now. Not 10 years from now. And pay less.
  Now you can hear all the arguments that it's not going to make any 
difference. If it's not going to make any difference, why do we hear 
from the Speaker of the House that their first step with dealing with 
this is to empty the Strategic Petroleum Reserve claiming that that's 
going to make a big impact on the world market? At least they're saying 
that supply does matter. If supply really matters, then let's not tell 
the American people, as we hear now from the Democrats, drive small 
cars and wait for the wind, or as we hear from the Senator from 
Illinois who said that he's not so upset about the price of gasoline 
going up, it's that it went up so fast. It would have been better for 
us if the price of gasoline had gone up more slowly and continued on. 
That's not an energy policy.
  So while I respect the work of the chairman of the subcommittee and 
the committee on this issue, and as important as electronic message 
preservation is, it pales, it pales compares to the energy needs of the 
American people. And certainly we can do better. We ought to demand we 
do better. We ought to do better or not go home at all.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, to get back to the subject matter before the 
House, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman).

                              {time}  1630

  Mr. WAXMAN. Thank you very much for yielding.
  The issue of energy is very much related to this question of e-mails 
and the preservation of the records. Now, why do we have our energy 
problems in this country? Suddenly Republicans are saying, 
notwithstanding the fact that they have run this government for 7\1/2\ 
years, the Democrats, the Democrats are at fault.
  Well, let me point out that as soon as President Bush came into 
office, he asked Vice President Cheney to chair an energy task force, 
and they operated in secrecy. We don't know exactly who they heard from 
or what they were asked to do, but we know that the legislation that 
the administration requested from the Congress was for billions of 
dollars to be given to the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear industries, 
industries that are making record profits.
  Now, at that same time, those of us from California were having a 
very difficult situation because energy wholesalers, including Enron, 
were holding

[[Page 14491]]

back supplies in order to drive up the price, and we all met with Vice 
President Cheney. And you know what he said to us, The reason you're 
having high prices of electricity is because of environmental laws. And 
we said, No, it's because we're being taken to the cleaners by Enron 
and other energy wholesalers. And he said, No, it's not true. Well, 
when we did our investigations on Enron, we found out it was exactly 
what was happening.
  Now, the point I want to make is we don't know what went on with this 
administration's deliberations for energy policy. We know that they've 
all failed. We wouldn't have the high price of gas today if they had 
done their job of getting us off our reliance on oil because we're so 
dependent now on bringing in oil from overseas. Even if we drill every 
possibility in the United States, we'd still be importing oil from 
places that are very vulnerable and are very hostile to us.
  But this energy task force, and this administration, proposed 
benefits for the oil companies and no policies to help us get out of 
that dependence on foreign oil and domestic oil, to look for 
alternatives, to look for conservation, to do something other than 
drill, drill, drill, and make the oil companies more profitable.
  And when we tried to find out what went on, we couldn't get the e-
mails. We couldn't look at the e-mails. And why? Well, do you know why? 
Because they weren't using e-mails from the government of the United 
States while they were doing government business. They were using the 
e-mails of the Republican National Committee. Are they doing Party 
business or are they doing government business?
  That's one of the reasons we need this bill, and we need to get away 
from this partisanship on the question of high oil prices.
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, let me just note that, once 
again, getting back to the legislation at hand, which has not been 
discussed recently, the Archivist, in testimony before the committee, 
noted that the cost of this bill could be billions of dollars before 
all is said and done. That money would come out of agency programs. 
That's money not spent on securing information. That's money for an 
open-ended and poorly defined initiative.
  We want to better define this and work with the majority to do that, 
something I thought we had agreed to in the committee. We need to get a 
better hand on the price tag involved before we move forward.
  I yield at this point 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina 
(Mr. Hayes).
  Mr. HAYES. I thank the gentleman from Virginia for yielding, and, Mr. 
Speaker, I rise today to confirm what I'm hearing here.
  We've got an energy crisis. Gas prices, food prices are through the 
roof, but the answer is to investigate. People at home in Raeford, 
North Carolina, and Laurinburg and Albemarle are telling me: Congress, 
legislate. Do what you need to do to get the price of gasoline down.
  But I hear today we're going to investigate future Presidents and how 
they communicate. My concern, Mr. Speaker, as I listen to my 
constituents carefully at home is they're going to examine the records, 
electronic and otherwise, of this Congress, and they will see that we 
failed to legislate and do the four things that we need to do to drive 
down the price of gas.
  Expand our nuclear capacity, it's clean. We need to have tar sands. 
We need to have coal turned into liquid and burn cleanly. We need to 
expand our refinery capacity because, as we import refined product, it 
costs us even more. And oh, by the way, exploration and drilling in 
areas where we have known reserves is something that we could stand 
together on the steps of this Capitol today and say we were going to 
do, and people around the world who watch signals, telling us where the 
price of energy is going, would see that America, the richest, the 
best, and the most powerful Nation in the world, is serious about 
becoming dependent of energy.
  But no, Democrats, Republicans, I hear it off the floor of this 
House, Democrats want to do that, Republicans want to do that, yellow 
dogs, Blue Dogs, but the big dogs, the Democrat leadership, refuse to 
allow a vote on this floor that will do the four things that I'm 
talking about.
  It's even in our own internal newspaper. It was there yesterday. Read 
it and weep. We need to act. We have the ability, the capability, and 
the capacity to do that. And by the way, we must not, as we take the 
steps we need to take, let happen what has happened before, and that 
is, as we drive gas prices down, and we can--and there's a bill with my 
name on it that says any money that we derive from additional leases 
will be used for research and development for alternative sources of 
energy which are crucial.
  So, Mr. Speaker, legislate, do it now, get gas prices down.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to my good 
friend from Illinois (Mr. Davis).
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend Chairman Waxman 
and Representative Clay for their recognition of this serious 
deficiency that we have in the way that we handle White House e-mails.
  You know, the more I listen to this debate, the more convinced I am 
that we need H.R. 5811, the Electronic Message Preservation Act, and 
I'm convinced because even as we talk about energy, even as we talk 
about the solution to problems, and even as we talk about Blue Dogs and 
yellow dogs and big dogs, it seems to me that we ought to be able to 
know what the conversations are about in the White House. It seems to 
me that we ought to be able to look back historically and find out what 
was being discussed, what was being planned, what the deliberations 
were.
  And as long as the level of secrecy exists, and I don't care which 
administration it is, then it means that the public does not know, and 
this bill simply opens up information and opportunity for the public to 
know.
  I support it.
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. I would yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Gohmert).
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Virginia.
  I rise in opposition to this. Here we are talking about e-mails from 
the White House and the executive branch when all we're hearing from 
the people in America is you've got to help us with energy prices.
  Now, I realize there may be, if you look at enough e-mails from the 
White House, you may find out they're getting the same messages that 
all of us are getting: help us with energy prices, we're desperate.
  Now, what I was hearing was from retailers, from restaurateurs, from 
people that are providing jobs, from people who have jobs and they're 
hanging on just by the skin of their teeth. They're union jobs, 
hardworking folks like that, that are just trying to make ends meet, 
and now they're at the end point where they're having to use their 
credit cards to pay for gas to get to the job so they can get paid so 
they can pay down their credit card enough to buy gas the next month. 
I'm seeing more and more people running out of gas on the interstate. 
They're getting desperate. And what is so sickening to me is knowing 
that in the last year all these different resources are becoming so 
much more clear that we have.
  You know, we have been told, some of us, that there may be 900 
billion to 1 trillion barrels of oil left in the entire Middle East, 
and then we hear that from that black shale that's in Utah, Colorado, 
and Wyoming, that we could recover three times that much at least in 
barrels of oil that could supply this Nation.
  We've heard for all these decades now, for 3 decades, gee, let's 
don't go after ANWR, it will take 10, 15 years. Well, the latest 
information, as my friend from Alaska has pointed out, is there's a 
pipeline 74 miles away. It can be flowing to this country, this 
continental U.S., within 3 years.
  And when you think about the Outer Continental Shelf, we may have 
more natural gas out there than any country in the world. We have been 
so blessed with natural resources, and yet, instead, we're making our 
citizens struggle just day-to-day to make ends meet.

[[Page 14492]]

We're losing jobs. People are laying people off.
  And I know--and I said this over a year ago--I know we have friends 
across the aisle who believe that perhaps even $20 a gallon gasoline 
would be a good thing because it would save the planet because people 
would quit using it. And as Al Gore said, the internal combustion 
engine was the worst invention ever created for the destruction of man, 
something along those lines.
  And the fact is, we do need to move to the alternative energy 
sources. We need to do that. But it's going to be 30, 40 years before 
we can get there, and in the meantime, it appears now we have enough 
natural resources, we could tell some of these other countries to kiss 
our backside and we don't need your fuel anymore. We can do it with 
what we have ourselves, and we ought to be doing that.
  We ought to be doing coal-to-liquid. We ought to be using ANWR, and 
what's more, if you look at the royalties that could be obtained from 
all of that wealth of resources, we could cut taxes and create some of 
the programs that my friends across the aisle want to do. Do all of 
that with the massive revenue that would come in. Everybody would win, 
but until we get realistic and want to help folks, all we're going to 
be doing is talking about e-mails.
  So let's do the right thing by the people that send us here. Let's 
help them with their energy costs. It is getting desperate, and it's 
time to put that word and all that wind being created--you talk about 
carbon emissions. There's no worse carbon emitter than this floor of 
the House of Representatives, gosh, with all the wind being generated.
  But let's do something constructive and put it into action.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, before returning to the subject matter before 
the House, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.
  I'm pleased to join my colleagues in the consideration of H.R. 5811, 
and H.R. 5811 seeks to modernize the requirements of the Federal 
Records Act and the Presidential Records Act to ensure the preservation 
of e-mails and other electronic messages.
  This bill was introduced by Chairman Waxman, Representative Holt and 
myself on April 15 and reported as amended from the committee on June 
11. I want to thank Chairman Waxman and Representative Holt for their 
dedication to this important issue.
  Now, my friend from Virginia and others have made some statements 
that I would like to refute, and one is that this bill strikes a 
careful balance. It's not going after this administration, but the Act 
itself recognizes the President's authority to carry out the day-to-day 
management of his records. This bill preserves that framework.
  The Federal Records Act gives the Archivist the authority to conduct 
inspection of agencies' record keeping programs, but the Presidential 
Records Act does not include such language. This bill does not give the 
Archivist any new authority to conduct inspections of Presidential 
records. And also, the Archivist has the expertise and the 
responsibility to determine how records should be managed and preserved 
and to certify that it is done properly.
  The status quo of having those at the White House make the decisions 
has not worked, and so, therefore, Mr. Speaker, we know that this bill 
is needed. And that's why we have it under consideration on the floor 
today.

                              {time}  1645

  I urge my colleagues to safeguard our Nation's rich history. 
Therefore, I urge swift passage of the bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Let me again just say to my friend from 
Missouri and the chairman of the committee, we appreciate their efforts 
on this.
  We all agree that this initiative has to be addressed, that from 
previous administrations from both parties there have been shortcomings 
in our ability to adequately preserve electronic records, that these 
administrations don't have the proper guidance from the outset. We 
recognize that this bill will not affect the current administration, it 
will affect the next administration.
  I think the frustration on this side of the aisle comes from the fact 
that, although this is an important issue, that the most important 
issue in this country right now are the rising cost of fuels. And we 
can't have a debate on that because the leadership on the other side 
refuses to allow us votes on more domestic exploration. And the only 
meaningful energy debate that we can have on the House floor comes on 
this bill, to expand the National Archives' ability to preserve 
electronic records from the executive branch.
  This is a great frustration, I think, not just on this side, but on 
the other side as well, to discuss this issue in a bipartisan manner, 
to debate this issue, to make the requisite compromises and 
accommodations to address this problem in a bipartisan manner, to 
include more alternative fuel options and more research and development 
in these areas, but also to include more domestic production and more 
conservation efforts. I think they're all part of it. And we are 
sitting here on, I think, issues that are important, but not nearly as 
important as the issues we're all hearing about when we go home.
  To that end, I yield 4 minutes to the former chairman of the 
Transportation Committee, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young).
  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  This is an issue. And the frustration on this side--and it should be 
on that side--is on the lack of an energy policy that only Congress can 
solve.
  I know there's a lot of talk. The Speaker just sent a letter to the 
President to use the SPR, as if that's going to solve the problem. 
That's not going to solve the problem. In fact, it will make the 
problem worse. We have to address the supply side of this issue, and 
we're not doing it.
  The last time we produced any new energy on this floor was 1973 when 
we had an embargo and we had no fuel, so we passed the Trans-Alaskan 
Pipeline. In 1976, we produced the first barrel of oil to America from 
Alaska. In 3 years, we built an 800-mile-long pipeline 48 inches 
around. We built the terminus point in Valdez, and I wear that today on 
my tie. We drilled the wells and we built the collection lines to 
deliver that oil. And we got as high as 2.2 million barrels a day to 
the United States of America because we were under the threat at that 
time, the same threat we are today, of control by overseas forces, not 
forces of military fact, but in fact those that control our supply. At 
that time, we were importing 39 percent of our oil from overseas. 
Today, it's 70 percent. And we have done nothing in this Congress to 
relieve that problem.
  Your constituents are paying for it today. There is no shortage of 
fuel. There is a high cost of fuel because we don't have the domestic 
capability of providing it. We need to have this debate on the floor. 
Let us stand up and be counted on both sides of the aisle who is for 
domestic production.
  There is no shortage of fossil fuel in the United States of America. 
We have an abundance of it. We've had the lack of will to produce it. 
It was easier to buy it abroad. We just had a sale in Alaska, other 
than ANWR, in Chukchi Sea about $2.6 billion from an oil company to try 
to develop it because there is a lot of argument on that side, well, 
they're not drilling the acreage they have now. You know why they're 
not drilling? Because your friends and your allies are filing suits not 
allowing them to drill, suits that say, oh, there's going to be polar 
bears affected or there's going to be some little other type of animal 
affected. In the meantime, your constituents are paying that $4.62 a 
gallon. Yes, the oil did drop yesterday, but it will go up tomorrow and 
the next day because we are not supplying the oil to our people through 
the domestic source.
  We have the shale that was mentioned in Utah and Wyoming and all the 
other areas, Colorado; huge amounts of oil. We have more coal in the 
United States than there is all around the world and we're not 
developing it. We have not had the will to

[[Page 14493]]

develop it because this Congress sits by and talks about saving records 
of the past administration. Your bill may not do that, but this is what 
this is all about. And I'm saying that doesn't produce any gas. That 
doesn't help the truck driver. It costs $2,000 to fill up one Peterbilt 
truck that delivers your food to your grocery store. Wait until that 
price starts hitting the prices in the grocery store, and it already 
has. The harvester who harvests the grain today now is paying sometimes 
as high as $4 and $5 for diesel fuel to run it. That's going to affect 
you, too.
  We have not acted on this floor. And the responsible way of 
addressing the issue--now, some people will say we'll have the other 
forms of energy, wind and hippy-hoppies and that type of thing to solve 
the problem. But the reality is fossil fuels drive objects. It's the 
trucks, the planes, the trains, and the automobiles that deliver to 
your homes and your hospitals and your schools, and we must have that.
  Yes, we can go into nuclear. Yes, we can go into wind. Yes, we can go 
into solar. And we can go to geothermal and hydro. We can do all those 
things and we should. My bill, H.R. 6107, to open ANWR--this, by the 
way, 12 times it passed this House floor. We won't have a vote on it 
this year, but we should have a vote. The one time we got it out of the 
Senate and Bill Clinton vetoed it.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. I yield the gentleman 2 additional minutes.
  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Bill Clinton vetoed it because he said it will 
take 10 years to produce it; ANWR, 10 years. That was 13 years ago. If 
we had built it then, we would have it pumping today over 1 million 
barrels a day, but no, he didn't do that.
  Let me stress again, ANWR is, in fact, 74 miles away from the 
existing pipeline, 800 miles long, a terminus point and all the 
infrastructure in place, and we built that in 3 years. And if you don't 
think we can build a pipeline 74 miles away and drill the oil and get 
it to that pipeline in 3 years, you're not studying this fact. It can 
be done for the American people.
  I'm asking you on both sides, let's drill, let's develop our domestic 
sources for the good of America, the good of the Nation, and make sure 
we can go forth.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve.
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, because of the inability to 
figure what the costs of this are, and that's from the Archivist's own 
testimony, money will be taken from other parts of the budget to pay 
for this until we can get a handle on it, including information 
security. And I would remind my friends that secure information is the 
lifeblood of effective government.
  We all know there have been a wide range of incidents involving data 
loss or theft, privacy breaches and security incidents at Federal 
agencies. The protection of personal information at Federal agencies 
presents unique challenges. These recent data breach incidents 
demonstrate the importance of strengthening the laws and the rules 
protecting personal information held by Federal agencies.
  And we can't address these issues after the fact. The evolving nature 
of cyber threats requires us to continually look for ways to improve 
government information privacy and security. We need to be proactive, 
not retroactive. I am concerned that the costs of this bill, being as 
nebulous as they are, without the regulations written and the like, 
will draw away from some of these other areas.
  In summary, let me just say our concerns at this point are our 
inability to pin down the cost, which could be in the billions of 
dollars. The Archivist testified that the cost could be in the 
billions. The unlimited and unclear authority to the Archivist--who 
doesn't really want this authority in this particular case--to define 
it, these are issues that we can work on as it moves through. There are 
issues that need to be worked on. It's an issue that needs to be 
addressed. But I'm not comfortable with the way the legislation reads 
today.
  Finally, we have to think about what we're doing here in shifting the 
Archivist from an advisory and collaborative role to that of a 
regulatory enforcer in a role that they have never had in the past.
  Again, I think the legislation is a step forward in many ways, but it 
needs some refinement. We had hoped to be able to offer some 
amendments, but we just got word last Wednesday or Thursday this bill 
was on the floor. I didn't arrive back in town until Tuesday, when the 
deadline had expired, so we were not able, from our point of view--I 
was incommunicado--to address this, not having the advance warning, or 
we might have been able to address these through the amendment process.
  At this point, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Peterson), who has been waiting patiently.
  Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I've been listening to the 
discussion and the debate here. Having served in local government and 
State government and here in Washington, I find it unbelievable that 
we're talking about an issue that came from an energy discussion of the 
beginning of the Bush administration's e-mail records.
  Back home people are struggling--and I live in a big rural area--to 
drive their cars. They're soon going to find out that natural gas 
prices are probably going to double by fall and the costs to heat their 
homes are going to double. My schools are going to pay twice as much to 
transport their children. They're going to pay twice as much to heat 
those schools. My hospitals are going to pay twice as much to heat 
those facilities and to transport patients. I'm losing the air service 
at my rural airports because you can't fly small planes with these fuel 
prices.
  This country's economic base is crumbling as we talk here today 
because of exploding energy costs. We are not going to live in the 
country we were born in. Opportunity is not going to abound. Americans 
are frightened and concerned, and we're worried about e-mail records of 
a meeting 8 years ago.
  I think our priorities are backwards. We passed an energy bill in `05 
that was timid. I think this administration has been timid. We've had 
three administrations in a row that locked up our Outer Continental 
Shelf, the only modern country in the world to do that. We've had 14 
Congresses in a row that have locked up the Outer Continental Shelf 
where there's huge resources.
  I'm for all the wind we can produce. I'm for all the solar we can 
absorb. But if we double them both in the next 5 years, we're less than 
1 percent of our energy need, and our energy need is growing more than 
1 percent a year, so it can't even fill that gap.
  Whether we like it or not, we need fossil fuels. We need coal, we 
need oil, we need gas--clean, green natural gas. I can't believe that 
people are afraid of drilling a gas well.
  Natural gas is driving the blue collar jobs out of this country as we 
speak. Dow Chemical used to do 64 percent of its business in this 
country in 2000; they're now at 34 percent of their business in this 
country. They paid $8 billion for gas in `02; they now pay $8 billion 
in natural gas quarterly. They can't afford to be here, folks.
  Americans can't afford to heat their older homes. They can't afford 
to drive their older cars. One hundred small trucking companies are 
going out of business every week because they can't afford fuel oil 
prices.
  The working poor of this country are being destroyed economically. 
The middle class are going to become poor. Most people in this Congress 
won't feel much pain. They can afford to pay these prices. But I want 
to tell you, my neighbors can't. A young lady that lives besides me 
drives 36 miles to work. She makes $11 an hour.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 
seconds.
  Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania. She pays $200 a month to heat her home, 
and she can't afford a doubling of those prices and she can't afford to 
drive to work. I can tell you story after story after story.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve.

[[Page 14494]]


  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I think we have discussed this, 
and more, over the last few days.
  I would just note that the frustration of some of our Members comes 
from the fact that we have massive issues facing this country; 
retirement of baby boomers and what this does to Federal budget 
deficits in the out years, and what this means to our future 
generation; American competitiveness, immigration, health care, and 
energy costs, and we're not dealing with them. We're kind of fiddling, 
sitting on this until after the election, and the public wants action 
now.
  I would say this though, I would say to our chairman, he is moving 
ahead with items under his agenda. I appreciate him moving on this. I 
hope to work with him in the future, should this be successful, to try 
to strengthen this bill as it moves through.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, this bill addresses a real problem, and that 
is a government operating in secret. And it requires agencies to 
electronically preserve e-mail records.
  Additionally, the bill has new requirements for the maintenance and 
preservation of e-mail records that are sent and received by 
Presidential advisers. The bill calls on the Archivist of the United 
States to establish standards for the management and preservation of 
these records.
  It's ironic, Mr. Speaker, that the other side has talked about energy 
during this entire debate when this administration's energy policy was 
conducted in secret, which may explain why the country is in the 
position it is in now because there was no openness to the policy, and 
this certainly wasn't the correct path to take.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I hope we can go on and pass this bill and 
open up our government for public perusal.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of 
this legislation. H.R. 5811, the Electronic Message Preservation Act, 
requires the preservation of certain electronic records by Federal 
agencies, requires a certification and reports relating to Presidential 
records, and requires that the information be readily retrieved through 
electronic searches.
  E-mail, because of its nature, presents challenges to records 
management. First, the information contained in e-mail records is not 
uniform: it may concern any subject or function and document various 
types of transactions. As a result, in many cases, decisions on which 
e-mail messages are records must be made individually. Second, the 
transmission data associated with an e-mail record--including 
information about the senders and receivers of messages, the date and 
time the message was sent, and any attachments to the messages--may be 
crucial to understanding the context of the record. Third, a given 
message may be part of an exchange of messages between two or more 
people within or outside an agency, or even of a string (sometimes 
branching) of many messages sent and received on a given topic. In such 
cases, agency staff need to decide which message or messages should be 
considered records and who is responsible for storing them in a 
recordkeeping system. Finally, the large number of federal e-mail users 
and high volume of e- mails increase the management challenge.
  Preliminary results of GAO's ongoing review of e-mail records 
management at four agencies show that not all are meeting the 
challenges posed by e-mail records. Although the four agencies' e-mail 
records management policies addressed, with a few exceptions, the 
regulatory requirements, these requirements were not always met for the 
senior officials whose e-mail practices were reviewed. Each of the four 
agencies generally followed a print and file process to preserve e-mail 
records in paper-based recordkeeping capabilities. (Among other things, 
a recordkeeping system allows related records to be grouped into 
classifications according to their business purposes.) Unless they have 
recordkeeping capabilities, e-mail systems may not permit easy and 
timely retrieval of groupings of related records or individual records. 
Further, keeping large numbers of record and nonrecord messages in e-
mail systems potentially increases the time and effort needed to search 
for information in response to a business need or an outside inquiry, 
such as a Freedom of Information Act request. Factors contributing to 
this practice where the lack of adequate staff support and the volume 
of e-mail received. In addition, agencies had not ensured that 
officials and their responsible staff received training in 
recordkeeping requirements for e-mail. If recordkeeping requirements 
are not followed, agencies cannot be assured that records, including 
information essential to protecting the rights of individuals and the 
Federal Government, are being adequately identified and preserved. H.R. 
5811 ensures that these records will be kept properly. I support this 
legislation and urge my colleagues to do likewise.
  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support 
of H.R. 5811, the ``Electronic Message Preservation Act,'' introduced 
by my friend and colleague on the Oversight and Government Reform 
Committee, Chairman Waxman.
  With the advent and proliferation of electronic communication, the 
time has come for us to improve the methods for preserving records. 
Gone are the days when correspondence was sent solely using paper. E-
mail has become the primary method of communication, and it is 
imperative that we develop procedures to stay current with the evolving 
technologies.
  The bill before us today would direct the Archivist to establish 
standards for the capture, management, and preservation of White House 
e-mails and other electronic messages and to certify that the system 
meets the requirements established by the Archivist. Additionally, H.R. 
5811 directs the Archivist to issue regulations requiring agencies to 
preserve electronic messages that are records in an electronic format. 
These regulations must cover, at a minimum, the capture, management, 
preservation, and electronic retrieval of these electronic records.
  I believe that this legislation will help future administrations 
avoid the issues that seemed to plague this White House with reports 
that officials were using RNC e-mail accounts to conduct official 
business and then deleting those e-mails from servers. H.R. 5811 will 
enhance the transparency of government while ensuring an accurate 
historical record.

                              {time}  1700

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
  Pursuant to House Resolution 1318, the previous question is ordered 
on the bill, as amended.
  The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.
  The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was 
read the third time.


          Motion to Recommit Offered by Mr. Davis of Virginia

  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to recommit.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman opposed to the bill?
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. I am, in its current form.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion to 
recommit.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Mr. Tom Davis moves to recommit the bill H.R. 5811 to the 
     Committee on Oversight and Government Reform with 
     instructions to report the same back to the House forthwith, 
     with the following amendment:
       At the end of the bill, add the following new sections:

     SEC. 4. PROCEDURES TO PREVENT UNAUTHORIZED REMOVAL OF 
                   CLASSIFIED RECORDS FROM NATIONAL ARCHIVES.

       (a) In General.--The Archivist of the United States shall 
     prescribe internal procedures to prevent the unauthorized 
     removal of classified records from the National Archives and 
     Records Administration or the destruction or damage of such 
     records, including when such records are accessed or searched 
     electronically. The procedures shall include the following 
     prohibitions:
       (1) No person, other than personnel of the National 
     Archives and Records Administration (in this section 
     hereafter referred to as ``NARA personnel''), shall view 
     classified records in any room that is not secure except in 
     the presence of NARA personnel or under video surveillance.
       (2) No person, other than NARA personnel, shall at any time 
     be left alone with classified records, unless that person is 
     under video surveillance.
       (3) No person, other than NARA personnel, shall conduct any 
     review of documents while in the possession of any cell phone 
     or other personal communication device.
       (4) All persons seeking access to classified records, as a 
     precondition to such access, must consent to a search of 
     their belongings upon conclusion of their records review.
       (5) All notes and other writings prepared by persons during 
     the course of a review of classified records shall be 
     retained by the National Archives and Records Administration 
     in a secure facility.
       (b) Definition of Records.--In this section, the term 
     ``records'' has the meaning provided in section 3301 of title 
     44, United States Code.

[[Page 14495]]



     SEC. 5. RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS TO PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS.

       Section 2204 of title 44, United States Code (relating to 
     restrictions on access to presidential records) is amended by 
     adding at the end the following new subsection:
       ``(f) The Archivist shall not make available any original 
     presidential records to any individual claiming access to any 
     presidential record as a designated representative under 
     section 2205(3) if that individual has been convicted of a 
     crime relating to the review, retention, removal, or 
     destruction of records of the Archives.''.

  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia (during the reading). Mr. Speaker, I ask 
unanimous consent that the reading of the motion be dispensed with.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Virginia?
  Mr. WAXMAN. I object.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Objection is heard.
  The Clerk will continue reading.
  The Clerk continued to read.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Virginia is recognized for 5 minutes in support of the motion.
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, this motion to recommit would 
ensure that the integrity of the public record is preserved from people 
who abuse their positions and remove highly sensitive records from the 
National Archives.
  Secure and accurate information is the lifeblood of effective 
government. There has been a wide range of incidents involving data 
loss, theft, privacy breaches. But more troubling is that some seek to 
tamper with or corrupt the official records of this Nation, to rewrite 
history, if you will.
  Our goal here is to protect the integrity of the public record. Under 
this motion the Archivist of the United States shall prescribe internal 
procedures to prevent unauthorized removal of classified records from 
the National Archives and Records Administration or the destruction or 
damage of such records, including when such records are accessed or 
searched electronically.
  First, we set forth a number of procedures to ensure these records 
remain secure. Second, we close a loophole in the Presidential Records 
Act that allows those previously convicted of unauthorized removal of 
classified materials back into the archives where they could do more 
damage. If a person has demonstrated propensity to commit crimes 
relating to the removal and destruction of classified Federal records, 
we should take the simple step of blocking their access in the future.
  The professionals at the National Archives are serious-minded 
historians and are not well suited to the role of police officer or 
security guard. The motion states that the archives shall not make 
available any original Presidential records to any person convicted of 
a crime involving the review, retention, removal, or destruction of 
archives records. This prohibition extends to individuals with special 
designations by former Presidents. In short, if you're convicted of 
mishandling classified materials, we want to remove you from the pool 
of people coming to the archives. You're a risk, and we are obligated 
to mitigate risks of this type.
  I would like to note that this second provision passed the House in 
identical form over a year ago as part of H.R. 1255, the Presidential 
Records Act, which still has not been enacted into law, by a vote of 
333-93.
  If we are serious about preserving and protecting the historical 
records of the Nation, we must vote in favor of this motion to 
recommit. I urge my colleagues to support it.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I wish to speak on the motion to recommit.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from 
California is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to point out to everyone who is 
listening to this debate that fundamentally this bill is about 
accountability and preventing cover-up. On the Oversight Committee, we 
have seen firsthand how destruction of e-mails frustrates 
accountability and allows officials to hide wrongdoing.
  We investigated Jack Abramoff's contacts with the White House. We saw 
that Abramoff told his colleagues that he used the Republican National 
Committee e-mail accounts when he was dealing with White House 
officials so that his communications would remain secret. This bill 
shuts down that loophole. It says Jack Abramoff can't send secret e-
mails to White House officials.
  We tried to investigate the false intelligence that led to the war in 
Iraq, but this investigation did not have access to Karl Rove's e-mails 
because they were destroyed. This bill says that Karl Rove's e-mails 
have to be preserved and not destroyed.
  We tried to investigate the Cheney Energy Task Force, which gave us 
the energy policy this Nation has followed under President Bush for the 
last 7\1/2\ years, which I believe has led to these incredible high 
prices for energy. But once again we needed access to the e-mails to 
understand what deals were cut with the special interests, including at 
that time Enron, which played a very active role on Vice President 
Cheney's Energy Task Force.
  A vote for this bill will make sure that the White House cannot hide 
its abuses. What we need is for this bill to pass so we can have honest 
and open and accountable government. That's why this legislation is 
before us today.
  Of course, we don't know what the motion to recommit is until the 
very last minute; so we have to prepare for whatever may come. This is 
not a motion to recommit that would destroy the bill, and I appreciate 
that fact. It's a motion to recommit that, by and large, I think makes 
sense, and why it wasn't offered as an amendment leaves me perplexed. I 
do have some minor concerns about the motion to recommit, but that can 
be worked out in conference. This should have been brought up as an 
amendment to the bill. But, in effect, a motion to recommit is a motion 
to amend the bill. And since I do not oppose, in effect, the amendment 
that's being offered, I will join in support of this motion to recommit 
because this bill is too important. I know it was minimized a lot in 
the debate where people said why are we talking about e-mail 
preservation when we should be talking about drilling in Alaska and off 
the coast of the United States? Well, they are related because had we 
been able to have the Energy Task Force, chaired by Cheney, Vice 
President Cheney, we could have found out how we had this policy 
decided, and now that we're saddled with it, we could have done 
something about it 7\1/2\ years ago.
  I will join in support of this motion to recommit, and I will urge my 
colleagues to vote for it so we can get the bill passed with this 
amendment that's being offered to it. I urge a vote for the motion.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is 
ordered on the motion to recommit.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to recommit.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the 
ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a 
quorum is not present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.
  The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.
  Pursuant to clause 8 and clause 9 of rule XX, this 15-minute vote on 
the motion to recommit will be followed by 5-minute votes on passage of 
the bill, if ordered; motions to suspend the rules on H.R. 3329 and 
H.R. 6184.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 419, 
nays 1, answered ``present'' 2, not voting 12, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 476]

                               YEAS--419

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Aderholt
     Akin
     Alexander
     Allen
     Altmire
     Arcuri
     Baca
     Bachmann
     Bachus
     Baird
     Baldwin
     Barrett (SC)
     Barrow
     Bartlett (MD)
     Barton (TX)
     Bean
     Becerra
     Berkley
     Berman

[[Page 14496]]


     Berry
     Biggert
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bishop (GA)
     Bishop (NY)
     Bishop (UT)
     Blackburn
     Blumenauer
     Blunt
     Boehner
     Bonner
     Bono Mack
     Boozman
     Boren
     Boucher
     Boustany
     Boyd (FL)
     Boyda (KS)
     Brady (PA)
     Brady (TX)
     Braley (IA)
     Broun (GA)
     Brown (SC)
     Brown, Corrine
     Buchanan
     Burgess
     Burton (IN)
     Butterfield
     Buyer
     Calvert
     Camp (MI)
     Campbell (CA)
     Cannon
     Cantor
     Capito
     Capps
     Capuano
     Cardoza
     Carnahan
     Carney
     Carson
     Carter
     Castle
     Castor
     Cazayoux
     Chabot
     Chandler
     Childers
     Clarke
     Clay
     Cleaver
     Clyburn
     Coble
     Cohen
     Cole (OK)
     Conaway
     Conyers
     Cooper
     Costa
     Costello
     Courtney
     Cramer
     Crenshaw
     Crowley
     Cubin
     Cuellar
     Culberson
     Cummings
     Davis (AL)
     Davis (CA)
     Davis (IL)
     Davis (KY)
     Davis, David
     Davis, Lincoln
     Davis, Tom
     Deal (GA)
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delahunt
     DeLauro
     Dent
     Diaz-Balart, L.
     Diaz-Balart, M.
     Dingell
     Doggett
     Donnelly
     Doolittle
     Doyle
     Drake
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Edwards (MD)
     Edwards (TX)
     Ehlers
     Ellison
     Ellsworth
     Emanuel
     Emerson
     Engel
     English (PA)
     Eshoo
     Etheridge
     Everett
     Fallin
     Farr
     Fattah
     Feeney
     Ferguson
     Filner
     Flake
     Forbes
     Fortenberry
     Foster
     Foxx
     Frank (MA)
     Franks (AZ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Gallegly
     Garrett (NJ)
     Gerlach
     Giffords
     Gilchrest
     Gillibrand
     Gingrey
     Gohmert
     Gonzalez
     Goode
     Goodlatte
     Gordon
     Granger
     Graves
     Green, Al
     Green, Gene
     Grijalva
     Gutierrez
     Hall (NY)
     Hall (TX)
     Hare
     Harman
     Hastings (FL)
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayes
     Heller
     Hensarling
     Herger
     Herseth Sandlin
     Higgins
     Hill
     Hinchey
     Hinojosa
     Hirono
     Hobson
     Hodes
     Hoekstra
     Holden
     Holt
     Honda
     Hooley
     Hoyer
     Hunter
     Inglis (SC)
     Inslee
     Israel
     Issa
     Jackson (IL)
     Jefferson
     Johnson (GA)
     Johnson (IL)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones (NC)
     Jones (OH)
     Jordan
     Kagen
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Keller
     Kennedy
     Kildee
     Kilpatrick
     Kind
     King (IA)
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Kirk
     Klein (FL)
     Kline (MN)
     Knollenberg
     Kucinich
     Kuhl (NY)
     LaHood
     Lamborn
     Lampson
     Langevin
     Larsen (WA)
     Larson (CT)
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Latta
     Lee
     Levin
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (GA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Linder
     Lipinski
     LoBiondo
     Loebsack
     Lofgren, Zoe
     Lowey
     Lucas
     Lungren, Daniel E.
     Lynch
     Mack
     Mahoney (FL)
     Maloney (NY)
     Manzullo
     Marchant
     Markey
     Marshall
     Matheson
     Matsui
     McCarthy (CA)
     McCarthy (NY)
     McCaul (TX)
     McCollum (MN)
     McCotter
     McCrery
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McHenry
     McHugh
     McIntyre
     McKeon
     McMorris Rodgers
     McNerney
     McNulty
     Meek (FL)
     Meeks (NY)
     Melancon
     Mica
     Michaud
     Miller (FL)
     Miller (MI)
     Miller (NC)
     Miller, Gary
     Miller, George
     Mitchell
     Mollohan
     Moore (KS)
     Moore (WI)
     Moran (KS)
     Moran (VA)
     Murphy (CT)
     Murphy, Patrick
     Murphy, Tim
     Murtha
     Musgrave
     Myrick
     Nadler
     Napolitano
     Neal (MA)
     Neugebauer
     Nunes
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Pastor
     Paul
     Payne
     Pearce
     Pence
     Perlmutter
     Peterson (MN)
     Peterson (PA)
     Petri
     Pitts
     Platts
     Poe
     Pomeroy
     Porter
     Price (GA)
     Price (NC)
     Putnam
     Radanovich
     Rahall
     Ramstad
     Rangel
     Regula
     Rehberg
     Reichert
     Reyes
     Reynolds
     Rodriguez
     Rogers (AL)
     Rogers (KY)
     Rogers (MI)
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roskam
     Ross
     Rothman
     Roybal-Allard
     Royce
     Ruppersberger
     Ryan (OH)
     Ryan (WI)
     Salazar
     Sali
     Sanchez, Linda T.
     Sanchez, Loretta
     Sarbanes
     Saxton
     Scalise
     Schakowsky
     Schiff
     Schmidt
     Schwartz
     Scott (GA)
     Scott (VA)
     Sensenbrenner
     Serrano
     Sessions
     Sestak
     Shadegg
     Shays
     Shea-Porter
     Sherman
     Shimkus
     Shuler
     Shuster
     Simpson
     Sires
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith (NE)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith (WA)
     Snyder
     Solis
     Souder
     Space
     Speier
     Spratt
     Stark
     Stearns
     Stupak
     Sullivan
     Sutton
     Tancredo
     Tanner
     Tauscher
     Taylor
     Terry
     Thompson (CA)
     Thompson (MS)
     Thornberry
     Tiahrt
     Tiberi
     Tierney
     Towns
     Tsongas
     Turner
     Udall (NM)
     Upton
     Van Hollen
     Velazquez
     Visclosky
     Walberg
     Walden (OR)
     Walsh (NY)
     Walz (MN)
     Wamp
     Wasserman Schultz
     Watson
     Watt
     Waxman
     Weiner
     Welch (VT)
     Weldon (FL)
     Weller
     Westmoreland
     Wexler
     Whitfield (KY)
     Wilson (OH)
     Wilson (SC)
     Wittman (VA)
     Wolf
     Woolsey
     Wu
     Yarmuth
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)

                                NAYS--1

       
     Dicks
       

                        ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--2

     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Waters
       
       

                             NOT VOTING--12

     Andrews
     Boswell
     Brown-Waite, Ginny
     Fossella
     Hulshof
     Pickering
     Pryce (OH)
     Renzi
     Richardson
     Rush
     Udall (CO)
     Wilson (NM)


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). Two minutes remain in this 
vote.

                              {time}  1739

  Ms. ESHOO, Ms. KILPATRICK, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mrs. NAPOLITANO and 
Messrs. COHEN, GUTIERREZ, SCOTT of Virginia, ROGERS of Alabama, 
GONZALEZ, AL GREEN of Texas and CARNAHAN changed their vote from 
``nay'' to ``yea.''
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas changed her vote from ``yea'' to 
``present.''
  So the motion to recommit was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  Stated for:
  Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 476, I was 
unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the instructions of the House on 
the motion to recommit, I report the bill, H.R. 5811, back to the House 
with an amendment.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the amendment.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Amendment offered by Mr. Clay:
       At the end of the bill, add the following new sections:

     SEC. 4. PROCEDURES TO PREVENT UNAUTHORIZED REMOVAL OF 
                   CLASSIFIED RECORDS FROM NATIONAL ARCHIVES.

       (a) In General.--The Archivist of the United States shall 
     prescribe internal procedures to prevent the unauthorized 
     removal of classified records from the National Archives and 
     Records Administration or the destruction or damage of such 
     records, including when such records are accessed or searched 
     electronically. The procedures shall include the following 
     prohibitions:
       (1) No person, other than personnel of the National 
     Archives and Records Administration (in this section 
     hereafter referred to as ``NARA personnel''), shall view 
     classified records in any room that is not secure except in 
     the presence of NARA personnel or under video surveillance.
       (2) No person, other than NARA personnel, shall at any time 
     be left alone with classified records, unless that person is 
     under video surveillance.
       (3) No person, other than NARA personnel, shall conduct any 
     review of documents while in the possession of any cell phone 
     or other personal communication device.
       (4) All persons seeking access to classified records, as a 
     precondition to such access, must consent to a search of 
     their belongings upon conclusion of their records review.
       (5) All notes and other writings prepared by persons during 
     the course of a review of classified records shall be 
     retained by the National Archives and Records Administration 
     in a secure facility.
       (b) Definition of Records.--In this section, the term 
     ``records'' has the meaning provided in section 3301 of title 
     44, United States Code.

     SEC. 5. RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS TO PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS.

       Section 2204 of title 44, United States Code (relating to 
     restrictions on access to presidential records) is amended by 
     adding at the end the following new subsection:
       ``(f) The Archivist shall not make available any original 
     presidential records to any individual claiming access to any 
     presidential record as a designated representative under 
     section 2205(3) if that individual has been convicted of a 
     crime relating to the review, retention, removal, or 
     destruction of records of the Archives.''.

  Mr. CLAY (during the reading). Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that the reading of the amendment be waived.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Missouri?
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the amendment.
  The amendment was agreed to.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the engrossment and third 
reading of the bill.
  The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was 
read the third time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the bill.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. SALI. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

[[Page 14497]]

  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. This will be a 5-minute vote.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 286, 
nays 137, not voting 11, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 477]

                               YEAS--286

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Allen
     Altmire
     Andrews
     Arcuri
     Baca
     Baird
     Baldwin
     Barrow
     Bean
     Becerra
     Berkley
     Berman
     Berry
     Bilirakis
     Bishop (GA)
     Bishop (NY)
     Blumenauer
     Boren
     Boucher
     Boustany
     Boyd (FL)
     Boyda (KS)
     Brady (PA)
     Braley (IA)
     Brown, Corrine
     Buchanan
     Butterfield
     Capito
     Capps
     Capuano
     Carnahan
     Carney
     Carson
     Castle
     Castor
     Cazayoux
     Chabot
     Chandler
     Childers
     Clarke
     Clay
     Cleaver
     Clyburn
     Cohen
     Conyers
     Cooper
     Costa
     Costello
     Courtney
     Cramer
     Crowley
     Cuellar
     Culberson
     Cummings
     Davis (AL)
     Davis (CA)
     Davis (IL)
     Davis, Lincoln
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delahunt
     DeLauro
     Dent
     Diaz-Balart, L.
     Diaz-Balart, M.
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Doggett
     Donnelly
     Doyle
     Edwards (MD)
     Edwards (TX)
     Ellison
     Ellsworth
     Emanuel
     Engel
     English (PA)
     Eshoo
     Etheridge
     Farr
     Fattah
     Filner
     Fortenberry
     Foster
     Frank (MA)
     Frelinghuysen
     Gallegly
     Gerlach
     Giffords
     Gilchrest
     Gillibrand
     Gonzalez
     Gordon
     Graves
     Green, Al
     Green, Gene
     Grijalva
     Gutierrez
     Hall (NY)
     Hare
     Harman
     Hastings (FL)
     Heller
     Herseth Sandlin
     Higgins
     Hill
     Hinchey
     Hinojosa
     Hirono
     Hobson
     Hodes
     Holden
     Holt
     Honda
     Hooley
     Hoyer
     Inslee
     Israel
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Jefferson
     Johnson (GA)
     Johnson (IL)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Jones (NC)
     Jones (OH)
     Kagen
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Keller
     Kennedy
     Kildee
     Kilpatrick
     Kind
     Kirk
     Klein (FL)
     Knollenberg
     Kucinich
     Kuhl (NY)
     LaHood
     Lampson
     Langevin
     Larsen (WA)
     Larson (CT)
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Lee
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lipinski
     LoBiondo
     Loebsack
     Lofgren, Zoe
     Lowey
     Lynch
     Mahoney (FL)
     Maloney (NY)
     Markey
     Marshall
     Matheson
     Matsui
     McCarthy (NY)
     McCollum (MN)
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McHugh
     McIntyre
     McMorris Rodgers
     McNerney
     McNulty
     Meek (FL)
     Meeks (NY)
     Melancon
     Michaud
     Miller (NC)
     Miller, George
     Mitchell
     Mollohan
     Moore (KS)
     Moore (WI)
     Moran (KS)
     Moran (VA)
     Murphy (CT)
     Murphy, Patrick
     Murphy, Tim
     Murtha
     Nadler
     Napolitano
     Neal (MA)
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Pastor
     Payne
     Perlmutter
     Peterson (MN)
     Platts
     Pomeroy
     Porter
     Price (NC)
     Rahall
     Ramstad
     Rangel
     Reichert
     Reyes
     Rodriguez
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roskam
     Ross
     Rothman
     Roybal-Allard
     Ruppersberger
     Ryan (OH)
     Salazar
     Sanchez, Linda T.
     Sanchez, Loretta
     Sarbanes
     Saxton
     Schakowsky
     Schiff
     Schmidt
     Schwartz
     Scott (GA)
     Scott (VA)
     Serrano
     Sestak
     Shays
     Shea-Porter
     Sherman
     Shuler
     Simpson
     Sires
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (WA)
     Snyder
     Solis
     Space
     Speier
     Spratt
     Stark
     Stupak
     Sutton
     Tanner
     Tauscher
     Taylor
     Terry
     Thompson (CA)
     Thompson (MS)
     Tiahrt
     Tiberi
     Tierney
     Towns
     Tsongas
     Turner
     Udall (NM)
     Upton
     Van Hollen
     Velazquez
     Visclosky
     Walberg
     Walden (OR)
     Walsh (NY)
     Walz (MN)
     Wasserman Schultz
     Waters
     Watson
     Watt
     Waxman
     Weiner
     Welch (VT)
     Weller
     Wexler
     Wilson (NM)
     Wilson (OH)
     Woolsey
     Wu
     Yarmuth
     Young (FL)

                               NAYS--137

     Aderholt
     Akin
     Alexander
     Bachmann
     Bachus
     Barrett (SC)
     Bartlett (MD)
     Barton (TX)
     Biggert
     Bilbray
     Bishop (UT)
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boehner
     Bonner
     Bono Mack
     Boozman
     Brady (TX)
     Broun (GA)
     Brown (SC)
     Burgess
     Burton (IN)
     Buyer
     Calvert
     Camp (MI)
     Campbell (CA)
     Cannon
     Cantor
     Carter
     Coble
     Cole (OK)
     Conaway
     Crenshaw
     Cubin
     Davis (KY)
     Davis, David
     Davis, Tom
     Deal (GA)
     Doolittle
     Drake
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Ehlers
     Emerson
     Everett
     Fallin
     Feeney
     Ferguson
     Flake
     Forbes
     Foxx
     Franks (AZ)
     Garrett (NJ)
     Gingrey
     Gohmert
     Goode
     Goodlatte
     Granger
     Hall (TX)
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayes
     Hensarling
     Herger
     Hoekstra
     Hunter
     Inglis (SC)
     Issa
     Johnson, Sam
     Jordan
     King (IA)
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Kline (MN)
     Lamborn
     Latta
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Linder
     Lucas
     Lungren, Daniel E.
     Mack
     Manzullo
     Marchant
     McCarthy (CA)
     McCaul (TX)
     McCotter
     McCrery
     McHenry
     McKeon
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Miller (MI)
     Miller, Gary
     Musgrave
     Myrick
     Neugebauer
     Nunes
     Paul
     Pearce
     Pence
     Peterson (PA)
     Petri
     Pitts
     Poe
     Price (GA)
     Putnam
     Radanovich
     Regula
     Rehberg
     Reynolds
     Rogers (AL)
     Rogers (KY)
     Rogers (MI)
     Royce
     Ryan (WI)
     Sali
     Scalise
     Sensenbrenner
     Sessions
     Shadegg
     Shimkus
     Shuster
     Smith (NE)
     Smith (TX)
     Souder
     Stearns
     Sullivan
     Tancredo
     Thornberry
     Wamp
     Weldon (FL)
     Westmoreland
     Whitfield (KY)
     Wilson (SC)
     Wittman (VA)
     Wolf
     Young (AK)

                             NOT VOTING--11

     Boswell
     Brown-Waite, Ginny
     Cardoza
     Fossella
     Hulshof
     Pickering
     Pryce (OH)
     Renzi
     Richardson
     Rush
     Udall (CO)


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). Members are advised that 2 
minutes remain in this vote.

                              {time}  1751

  Mrs. MYRICK, Messrs. LEWIS of California, McCOTTER, Mrs. BONO MACK, 
and Mr. CAMP of Michigan changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  So the bill was passed.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________