    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [January 29, 1999]
    [Page 131]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 131]]

    Letter to Congressional Leaders on the United States Air Force Operating
    Location Near Groom Lake, Nevada
    January 29, 1999

    Dear Mr. Speaker:  (Dear Mr. President:)
        Consistent with section 6001(a) of the Resource Conservation and
    Recovery Act (RCRA) (the ``Act''), as amended, 42 U.S.C. 6961(a),
    notification is hereby given that on September 25, 1998, I issued
    Presidential Determination No. 98-36 (copy attached) and thereby
    exercised the authority to grant certain exemptions under section
    6001(a) of the Act.
        Presidential Determination No. 98-36 exempted the United States Air
    Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, from any Federal,
    State, interstate, or local hazardous or solid waste laws that might
    require the disclosure of classified information concerning that
    operating location to unauthorized persons. Information concerning
    activities at the operating location near Groom Lake has been properly
    determined to be classified, and its disclosure would be harmful to
    national security. Continued protection of this information is,
    therefore, in the paramount interest of the United States.
        The determination was not intended to imply that in the absence of a
    Presidential exemption, RCRA or any other provision of law permits or
    requires the disclosure of classified information to unauthorized
    persons. The determination also was not intended to limit the
    applicability or enforcement of any requirement of law applicable to the
    Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake except those provisions,
    if any, that would require the disclosure of classified information.
            Sincerely,

                                                          William J. Clinton

    Note: Identical letters were sent to J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the
    House of Representatives, and Albert Gore, Jr., President of the Senate.