Electronic Message Preservation Act
ELECTRONIC MESSAGE PRESERVATION ACT -- (House of Representatives - July 09, 2008)
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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.
I urge my colleagues to safeguard our Nation's rich history. Therefore, I urge swift passage of the bill.
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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.
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