To amend title 28, United States Code, to provide for an additional judgeship for the western district of Michigan.

I thank the chairman of the subcommittee for yielding to me and the fine work he and his subcommittee have done with this legislation. I also want to commend the gentleman from Ohio, the ranking member of that subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, this bill also builds on a bipartisan proposal that came to light in the last Congress, and I think it fits well within the theme of many of the bills that we are pursuing this week, openness in government.

The bill has a straightforward goal. It ensures that future historians have access to Presidential records as the Presidential Records Act intended.

This law was adopted after the Watergate scandals to underscore the fact that Presidential records belong to the American people, not to the President, not to his family, but to the American people. It has been a bipartisan proposal from the very beginning. In fact, this bill had bipartisan support not only from Mr. Clay and others, but Mr. Platts and Mr. Burton.

The act said that these records would be available to researchers and the general public in a timely manner. This was the rule for over two decades, but in 2001, President George W. Bush issued an executive order that turned the Presidential Records Act on its head and gave Presidents the authority to keep their records out of the public eye.

The Bush order gives both current and former Presidents nearly unlimited authority to withhold Presidential records from public view or to delay their release indefinitely. It allows a designee of former Presidents to assert executive privilege after the President's death, and for the first time, it gives former Vice Presidents the authority to assert privilege over their own documents. In short, this gives former Presidents and their heirs the ability to control their legacy and determine what information will be available to history.

That undermines the entire purpose of the Presidential Records Act. Historians and scholars need access to Presidential records so that there is an accurate record of a President's term in office and not an alleged version based on what the President chooses to share.

During Sunshine Week this bill fits in so well, because it would make sure that information about government and government activities is open to public scrutiny. It is an essential component of this open government agenda.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, protect historical research, and vote for this bill.

Thank you very much for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, history is important because it informs us of events of the past, so we can learn from those events, not to make the same mistakes or to follow good examples that turned out to be successful. History always is an ongoing process. It is a process of looking at facts and reinterpreting those facts, often in light of current events and matters that are before the researchers at the present time.

But there are those who would like to rewrite history for their own purposes, and to the extent that we can keep that from happening, I think this bill goes a long way. It would allow the records, the raw information, to be available, let those who want to interpret those events do so as they see fit; and in doing so, by making these records available to scholars and the public, we can find out the information that we didn't know at the time the events were taking place: what motivated certain decisions, what other factors were being considered, what was going on that led to certain conclusions.

There are books now being written about the present day, how we got into Iraq, what we had hoped to do, what we still hope we can accomplish, what the thinking was of those who led us into the adventure. Many of the books have been praiseworthy, and most of them have been quite critical. But it won't be until the judgment of history that we will be able to fill in many of the gaps that remain.

So, at some point, Presidential records help scholars fill in those gaps. That is why I think it is so worthwhile to have this information available, at least at a time when there is some historical perspective. Many times it is after the President has passed on, but certainly long after the President's administration.

During the Nixon period, President Nixon thought that the records belonged to him, and he sought, as I recall, a tax break for donating his records to a nonprofit organization. He felt he could control those records.

Well, I think the American people looked at that and said, wait a minute, some things are his, the President's, to do with as he sees fit, but some things don't really belong to him.

They belong to the American people. They belong to scholars. They belong to history. And the Presidential Records Act was adopted because of that concern. It has worked well for several decades, and it is only when we saw the executive order presented by President George W. Bush that some of the concerns have been raised because that Presidential order overturned the one that was put into effect by President Reagan implementing the post-Watergate legislation.

So I wanted to use this additional time to give some historical background to this matter. We heard from many scholars, as the chairman of the subcommittee indicated, who set out the reasons why they thought it was important to be able to get this information, the Archivist, Mr. Weinstein, Presidential scholars like Mr. Dallek and Mr. Reeves, particularly, who have written about recent Presidents, urged us to adopt this legislation. And I am pleased that now we are considering it. And it is important, it is a good government bill, and we are doing it in the appropriate way, in a bipartisan spirit where we vote together on the committee. And I commend all those involved. And I know now, because I have just been informed, that the next bill is ready for consideration of the House.

Mr. Speaker, as a proud cosponsor of this bill--and of similar legislation since shortly after I was first elected to Congress--I strongly support its approval by the House.

The bill amends the Presidential Records Act of 1978 to establish a clear and equitable process enabling incumbent and former Presidents to review records prior to their public release under the act and determine whether to assert constitutional privilege claims against release of the records.

Importantly, it would revoke an Executive order issued by President George W. Bush in 2001 that overturned rules set by President Ronald Reagan. By that order, President Bush has sought to give himself and Vice President Cheney--as well as former Presidents and Vice Presidents--broad authority to withhold Presidential records or delay their release indefinitely. I do not think that order should be allowed to stand.

The Presidential Records Act was enacted in 1978 after the Watergate scandal and the subsequent resignation of President Nixon. It makes clear that Presidential records belong to the American people, not to the President, and required the Archivist of the United States--who was given custody of the records--to make the records available to the public as rapidly and completely as possible consistent with the provisions of the law.

The act first applied to the records of former President Ronald Reagan. In 1989, he issued an Executive order requiring the Archivist to give the incumbent and former Presidents 30 days notice before releasing Presidential records, with the records to be released after that unless the incumbent or former President claimed executive privilege, or unless the incumbent President instructed the Archivist to extend the period indefinitely. If the incumbent President decided to invoke executive privilege, the Archivist would withhold the records unless directed to release them by a final court order. If the incumbent President decided not to support a former President's claim of privilege, the Archivist would decide whether or not to honor the claim.

Before he left office, President Reagan used his authority under the act to restrict access to some of his records for 12 years, a period that expired in January 2001.

In February 2001, the Archivist provided the required 30-day notice of his intent to release about 68,000 pages of former President Reagan's records. In March, June, and August of 2001, the counsel to President Bush instructed the Archivist to extend the time for claiming executive privilege. And then, in November 2001, President Bush issued a new Executive order extending the review period for former Presidents to 90 days and allowing a former President to extend it indefinitely. In addition, that order allows an unlimited review period for the current President and requires the Archives to honor the assertions of executive privilege made by either the incumbent or a former President--even if an incumbent President disagrees with the former President's claim. And, while the Reagan order said records were to be released on a schedule unless action occurred, the Bush Executive order says records will be released only after actions by the former and current Presidents have occurred--so, secrecy, not disclosure, is the rule. Also, the Bush Executive order allows designees of a former President to assert privilege claims after that President's death and authorizes former vice Presidents to assert executive privilege claims over their records.

Mr. Speaker, when we think what difference the release of the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon tapes has made in our understanding of the decision-making on Vietnam we can see how much could be lost if representatives of the Reagan, Clinton, and current Bush administrations in the future can hold back any and all documents related to Iran-contra, the first gulf war, the way the Clinton administration responded to intelligence about a potential Al Qaeda attack, or the current administration's decisions about Iraq.

It is understandable that every President and his or her heirs wants to put the best possible face on his administration, but an edited and airbrushed version of history is not something that will serve our long-term national interest.

H.R. 1255 would nullify Executive Order 13233 and establish procedures to ensure the timely release of Presidential records.

It requires the Archivist to give advance notice to former and incumbent Presidents before records are released so they can review the records and decide whether to claim privilege and provides for withholding of material for which the incumbent President claims privilege. The bill also clarifies that the incumbent and former Presidents must make privilege claims personally and that a right to claim executive privilege cannot be bequeathed to assistants, relatives, or descendants. And the bill eliminates executive privilege claims for vice Presidents, restoring the long-standing doctrine that the right to executive privilege over Presidential records is held only by Presidents.

Mr. Speaker, this is a fair, balanced, and essential bill. I strongly urge its approval.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1255, the ``Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007,'' which vitiates an Executive order issued in 2001 by President Bush that unreasonably and severely restricts public access to Presidential records. By negating that Executive order, we win a great victory for open government.

Under the Presidential Records Act, Presidential records are supposed to be released to historians and the public 12 years after the end of a Presidential administration. Shortly after taking office in 2001, President Bush issued Executive Order 13233, which overturned President Reagan's Executive order and gave current and former Presidents and Vice Presidents broad authority to withhold Presidential records or delay their release indefinitely. H.R. 1255 will nullify the Bush Executive order and establish procedures to ensure the timely release of Presidential records.

Under the Bush Executive order, the Archivist of the United States must wait for both the current and former President to approve the release of Presidential records, a review process that can continue indefinitely. Under the bill, the current and former President would have a set time period of no longer than 40 business days to raise objections to the release of these records by the Archivist.

Mr. Speaker, another salutary feature of H.R. 1255 is that it limits the authority of former Presidents to withhold Presidential records. To prevent the release of his records under the regime established by President Reagan's Executive order, a former President was required to request the incumbent President to assert the claim of executive privilege. If the incumbent President decided not to assert executive privilege, however, the records would be released unless the former President succeeded in obtaining a court order upholding the assertion of privilege and enjoining disclosure.

The regime established by President Bush's Executive order turned this process on its head. It requires the incumbent President to sustain the executive privilege claim of the former President unless a person seeking access could persuade a court to reject the claim. In effect, the Bush order gave former Presidents virtually unlimited authority to withhold Presidential records through assertions of executive privilege. H.R. 1255 restores the Reagan approach, giving the incumbent President the discretion to reject ill-founded assertions of executive privilege by former Presidents.

Mr. Speaker, under President Bush's Executive order regime, claims of executive privilege could be asserted to defeat disclosure even after the death of a former President by his heirs, assigns, and descendants. The practical effect of eliminating the requirement that the former President had to assert the privilege personally is to extend the time in which Presidential records may be withheld in perpetuity. H.R. 1255 makes clear that the right to claim executive privilege is personal to current and former Presidents and does not survive the death of the former President.

Mr. Speaker, perhaps the most egregious aspect of President Bush's Executive order is that it authorized former Vice Presidents to assert executive privilege claims over Vice Presidential records. If the authority to assert such a claim is left undisturbed, the public will never learn what really went on behind the closed doors of Vice President Cheney's secret energy task force or the White House Iraq Group's marketing campaign to sell the Iraq War to the Congress and the American people. That is why I support the provision in H.R. 1255 limiting the right to assert executive privilege over Presidential records only to Presidents and former Presidents.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support H.R. 1255 and urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation amending the Presidential Records Act to nullify the Bush Executive order and establish procedures to ensure the timely public release of Presidential records.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1255) to amend chapter 22 of title

44, United States Code, popularly known as the Presidential Records Act, to establish procedures for the consideration of claims of constitutionally based privilege against disclosure of Presidential records, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

As chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives and an original cosponsor of the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, I strongly support H.R. 1255 and urge its passage by the House. It is appropriate that the House should consider H.R. 1255 during Sunshine Week, when we can call attention to the importance of transparency and open government.

Introduced by Representative Waxman, this bipartisan bill is intended to promote the timely release of Presidential records under the Presidential Records Act of 1978, by rescinding Executive Order 13233. Issued by President Bush in November 2001, the executive order granted new authority to Presidents, former Presidents, their heirs and designees and Vice Presidents, allowing them to withhold information from public view unilaterally and indefinitely.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I now yield 3 minutes to the distinguished Chair of the full Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, during subcommittee hearings last week, the Archivist of the United States, Allen Weinstein, testified that Executive Order 13233 has ``added to the endemic problem of delay that NARA faces from the PRA in the processing of Presidential records.''

Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive testified that the order already has added 5 years to the response time for records from the Reagan library and violates the letter and spirit of the PRA.

Presidential historian Robert Dallek urged Congress to rescind the order, stating, ``President Bush's order carries the potential for an incomplete and distorted understanding of past Presidential decisions, especially about controversial actions with significant consequences.''

``It is understandable,'' said Dr. Dallek, ``that every President and his heirs wants to put the best possible face on his administration, but an uncritical or limited reconstruction of our Nation's history does nothing to serve its long-term national interest.''

Mr. Speaker, the long-term national interest demands that the American people know how and why important decisions are made at the highest level of our government. This straightforward and bipartisan legislation would ensure that this will be the case by requiring that Presidential records will be treated as the property of the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support the bill as reported by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman of our committee for those anecdotes and his knowledge of history.

I also want to thank the ranking member from Ohio for his cooperative spirit of allowing the sunshine in on this bill and the other bills that we have been discussing today.

And I just want to close by urging all of my colleagues to vote in support of H.R. 1255, the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

When it comes to the records of a President, we need to ensure that the public's interest remains paramount. As I noted in the subcommittee, it is important that we distinguish the Nation's interest from that of a former President's interest. We need to achieve that critical balance between the President's constitutional privilege and the public's right to know.

The bill is one step toward preserving and protecting the constitutional prerogatives of Presidents while preserving public access to important and historic Presidential records. The legislation before us established a process whereby incumbent and former Presidents could, within specified time limits, review records prior to their release and determine whether to assert constitutional privilege claims against release of the records.

This legislation is identical to H.R. 4187, introduced in the 107th Congress and approved by the committee under the leadership of the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton). I want to commend him for his work in this area.

In addition, I want to highlight an amendment which was approved by the full committee. This provision will close a loophole in the Presidential Records Act which would have allowed individuals previously convicted of a crime relating to the mishandling of Archives records to continue to have special access to Presidential records. The amendment to the bill states that the Archivist shall not make available any Presidential records to any individual claiming access as a designated representative under section 2205(3) of title 44 if that individual has been convicted of a crime relating to the review, retention, removal or destruction of Archives records.

If you are convicted of mishandling Archives records, you should not have special access to original Presidential records. You are a proven risk, and we are obligated to mitigate this type of risk. Given the critical importance of Presidential records to the public, to researchers and to the press, we must ensure no one is able to tamper with history. This bill today includes this important amendment.

I also want to commend the Chair of our subcommittee, Mr. Clay, for his leadership on the subcommittee, and his thoughtful hearings held by the subcommittee in support of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to vote in support of passage of H.R. 1255, and I yield back the balance of my time.