From Secrecy News:
A new report from the Senate Judiciary Committee examines the use of the state secrets privilege by the executive branch and describes the intent of new legislation to strengthen judicial review of its use in civil litigation.The 53 page report summarizes the latest legal scholarship on the state secrets privilege, as well as the controversy that has surrounded it.
From OMB Watch:
A bill to reduce and standardize Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) designations moved quickly through the House in July, passing in both committee and on the House floor just a single week after it was introduced by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA). This bill, along with a similar piece of legislation that focuses solely on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), now goes to the Senate where it may have a tougher time given the limited amount of legislative time left in this congressional session.The Waxman-Davis bill, the Reducing Information Control Designations Act (H.R. 6576), gives new authority to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Under the bill, the Archivist of the United States must establish narrowly constructed standards for CUI designations that maximize public access to information as well as develop penalties for employees and contractors who repeatedly fail to comply. NARA is already the statutory designee for setting classification standards. The act also calls for random audits of unclassified information with control designations by the inspector general of each federal agency.
From the New York Times:
Want to vet a baby sitter? Need to peek into the background of a prospective employee? Curious about the past of a potential date?Last month, PeopleFinders, a 20-year-old company based in Sacramento, introduced CriminalSearches.com, a free service to satisfy those common impulses. The site, which is supported by ads, lets people search by name through criminal archives of all 50 states and 3,500 counties in the United States. In the process, it just might upset a sensitive social balance once preserved by the difficulty of obtaining public documents like criminal records.
Academics have a term for the old inaccessibility of records like those for criminal convictions: “practical obscurity.” Once upon a time, people in search of this data had to hire private investigators to navigate byzantine courthouses and rudimentary filing or computer systems, and to deal with often grim-faced legal clerks. In a way, the obstacles to getting criminal information maintained a valuable, ignorance-fueled civil peace. Convicts could start fresh after serving their time without strangers knowing their pasts, and there was little risk that unsophisticated researchers could confuse people with identical names.
Well, not anymore. The information on CriminalSearches.com is available to all comers.
From the National Security Archive:
Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola of the U.S. District Court today denied a motion by the White House to reconsider his earlier recommendations and reaffirmed his recommendation that the court order the Executive Office of the President (EOP) to search individual workstations used between March 2003 and October 2005 and preserve any e-mails located on those workstations or on portable media used by EOP employees.
From the History News Network:
While researching my book on the history of presidential libraries, I discovered a shocking but perhaps not surprising situation: the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is improperly withholding its own records. Theoretically a non-partisan as well as non-political agency, NARA is at the center of some of the most controversial issues of our time, including government secrecy, executive privilege, and timely access to presidential records. Rather than abide by legislative requirements and professional standards, NARA has chosen to avoid accessioning and processing many (if not most) of its own records dating back more than forty years. Worse, officials have blocked access to the records, perhaps due to concerns over possible criticism of the agency.
From the Hawaii Reporter:
. . . A natural follow up question is, shouldn’t the Congress that is approving the Smithsonian’s budget also be subject to greater disclosure laws under FOIA? Because the Congress writes the laws, they conveniently left themselves (and the courts) out of FOIA and this recent bill.So if you want to find out what the research arm of Congress is digging up – tough luck. Or find out decision making records, congressional correspondence, accounting documents – no dice.
It took a lot of years (eleven) to get a FOIA bill passed in 1966. And it took a lot of public and media pressure to get President Johnson to sign the bill. Now the public needs to put that spotlight on Congress. . .
From Secrecy News:
The “Foreign Relations of the United States” (FRUS) series, which is the official documentary history of U.S. foreign policy, remains unlikely to meet the legal requirement that it be published no later than 30 years after the events that it describes, an official advisory committee has told the Secretary of State.“Despite many and repeated assurances that this problem would be addressed by 2010, the committee is now very skeptical that the Office of the Historian will succeed in meeting the 30-year requirement for the Foreign Relations series at any time within the next decade,” the State Department Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation wrote in its new annual report.
From the Dallas Morning News:
Faced Monday with a report that a rogue lobbyist urged an exiled Central Asian leader to support the Bush library to curry favor in Washington, library officials promised that no foreign money will be accepted until President Bush leaves office. On Tuesday, it became clear the public will have to take them at their word.The foundation isn't promising to identify all donors, or the dates and sums of their gifts.
"Current law only requires annual disclosure of the total sum raised," said Dan Bartlett, the former White House counselor, speaking for the foundation that will build the Bush library and research center at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "We're working through all our decisions but ... at a minimum, we are not going to be accepting donations from non-U.S. residents before he's out of office."
From the LA Times:
Laws in all but a handful of states give the public access to government e-mail. But what if that e-mail was intentionally deleted or routinely purged?In Hawaii, Gov. Linda Lingle's office allowed e-mails of her top aide to be purged. In North Carolina, Gov. Mike Easley's administration allegedly ordered state workers to delete their e-mail correspondence with his office. And in Missouri, lawsuits claim Gov. Matt Blunt's office deleted e-mails and ordered the destruction of backup e-mail tapes.These and other cases raise concerns that millions of public records in the form of e-mails may be disappearing before anyone outside government can read them.
Experts say e-mail archiving systems and better training for state employees will help ensure e-mail is not lost.
From the FOIA blog:
A three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has dismissed an appeal of a lower court ruling that the Secret Service must process visitor logs relating to the Vice-President for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.In the lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington ("CREW"), [Ed. note-I do legal work for CREW, but have not done anything on this matter] the district court had ruled that the records sought were agency records pursuant to FOIA and that the Secret Service needed to process them. Rather than comply with the order, the government appealed the order. However, the appellate court decided that it had no subject matter jurisdiction as this wasn't a final order that could be appealed, nor did it fit any of the exceptions that would allow appeal at this time. Thus, the case was sent back to the district court for further action.
From the Washington Post:
Federal officials inconsistently preserve government e-mail, creating gaps in the public record and making it difficult for the public to understand the activities of the government, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office yesterday.The report came before a scheduled House vote today on a bill that would create standards for the electronic storage of e-mail by federal agencies.
As the use of e-mail has increased dramatically, federal agencies are struggling to determine which e-mails can be deleted, which must be preserved as public records and how those records should be stored.
Current law gives agencies broad discretion to determine how electronic records and communications are maintained. Quality varies widely, according to the GAO.
Read the GAO Report: Federal Records: National Archives and Selected Agencies Need to Strengthen E-Mail Management (GAO-08-742)
From The Public Record:
On Wednesday, just as the Senate passed sweeping new legislation (H.R. 5811) to modernize a 30 year old federal surveillance law, President Bush signaled that he would swiftly veto a bill approved by the House earlier in the day that would overhaul the Presidential and Federal Records Act to ensure emails and other government documents are preserved in the age of the Internet.The measure was passed by a vote of 286-137, more than a year after several Senate and House investigations discovered that the Bush administration apparently purged millions of emails and that dozens of administration officials used email accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee to conduct official White House business in what appeared to be a violation of the Presidential Records Act. . .
. . . The Bush administration, in threatening to veto the legislation, said that the bill is "an excessive and inappropriate intrusion" into the work of the executive branch and its staff.
In a statement, the White House said the Electronic Message Preservation Act would "upset the delicate separation of powers" created in the 1978 Presidential Records Act, a law drafted in response to the widespread abuse of federal records during the Nixon administration.
From the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government:
A just completed study by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government shows that federal departments and agencies made little progress in responding to Freedom of Information Act requests, despite a two-year-old presidential directive to improve service. The report, “An Opportunity Lost”, says agencies cut staff and FOIA spending in 2007 and as a result failed to take advantage of a sharp fall off in FOIA requests to make significant reductions in the backlog of unprocessed requests.
From NextGov.com:
The Census Bureau will receive $210 million in emergency funding to cover cost overruns for the 2010 decennial census, despite a vow by the head of the Commerce Department to transfer funds to pay for the shortfall.
From the FOIA Blog:
Even though Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington ("CREW") lost at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in its attempt to get e-mails from the White House Office of Administration ("OA") because the Court ruled that the OA was not subject to the FOIA, CREW has gained an order requiring the OA to preserve all material that would be subject to the FOIA if CREW prevails on appeal.Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the OA must preserve the material until the resolution of CREW's appeal or January 5, 2009, whichever event is earlier.
From The Florida Times-Union:
Simple solutions can sometimes ward off sticky problems.Exhibit A, in this case, is State Attorney Harry Shorstein's good call to change his policy of giving uncopied files to outside agencies.
Twice in the last three years, public access to files involving investigations disappeared when either the FBI or the U.S. Attorney's Office asked for documents from the State Attorney's Office and copies weren't made before handing them over.
The latest case involved records the State Attorney's Office gathered in a probe of the city's minority contracting program that has been making headlines as part of an FBI probe into the Jacksonville port.
The problem is the public can't view, obtain or read about records the office doesn't have. And the FBI - which is not subject to Florida's public records law - has refused to provide Shorstein the records he gave that agency in 2004 until its investigation is over.
From Federal Computer Week:
The Census Bureau might not get an additional $210 million as a result of a recent Senate vote.The Senate voted 77-21 June 26 to remove the emergency spending designation from the funding, essentially dropping it from the fiscal 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Act.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez had requested additional money for this fiscal year at an April 3 hearing before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. He said the money would help offset the total cost of the 2010 census, which is estimated at $2.2 billion to $3 billion more than the original estimate, bringing the total to $14.5 billion. Some of that increase has been attributed to the Census Bureau's decision to make follow-up surveys paper-based rather using handheld computers.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who demanded the vote, argued that the $210 million could not be considered emergency spending. He blamed the rising costs on Census' mismanagement.
From Tim Stanley's Justia blog:
Oregon's Legislative Counsel Committee had a meeting this morning to discuss the copyright claim on the Oregon Revised Statutes. After taking legal counsel from Dexter Johnson, talking with Karl Olson, Carl Malamud, three Oregon citizens and myself, they unanimously voted to not to enforce any copyright claims on the Oregon Revised Statutes.
Link to the prepared statements submitted by Public Resource.
From Secrecy News:
The cost of implementing the national security classification system in government and industry reached an all-time high of $9.91 billion last year, according to the latest annual report (pdf) from the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO).The 2007 classification cost figure, which includes physical security, computer security and other aspects of classified information security, was a 4.6 percent increase over the year before and is the highest amount ever reported by the ISOO.
The story of the Nation's land during the last 75 years can be told impartially through records of earth observation — aerial photographs dating from the 1930s and satellite images dating from the 1960s. This vast reservoir of data supplies objective reference points that are essential in documenting land change and in understanding climate change. Preserving important records of the Nation's history while providing convenient public access to them is a vital responsibility of government.To meet this responsibility in the field of earth observation, Professor Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, and Dr. Mark Myers, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), today signed an agreement creating a cooperative framework for how the two Federal agencies will together ensure the preservation and access of the massive earth imagery and geospatial data resources currently archived by the USGS at its Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
From Free Government Information:
For those of you following the question regarding the copyright of Oregon's Revised Statutes, you might want to visit: public.resource.org/oregon.The State of Oregon has scheduled a hearing for June 19, 2008 to “consider its copyright policy in light of technological developments and the Internet.”
And, the Public.Resource site now has links to the testimony submitted by Carl Malamud, Tim Stanley and Karl Olson.
From Federal Computer Week:
In response to the revelations about White House e-mail practices, members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have introduced the Electronic Communications Preservation Act. The bill would direct the Archivist of the United States to issue regulations that require federal agencies to preserve electronic records — especially e-mail messages — in an electronic format.Current National Archives and Records Administration regulations permit agencies to preserve electronic records by storing them in an electronic format or printing them on paper and saving the paper. Agencies almost universally choose the paper option if they preserve their electronic records at all.
From Secrecy News:
To reduce unnecessary restrictions on unclassified information, Congress should require agencies to publish more of their unclassified records, we suggested in a letter (pdf) to the House Intelligence Committee this week.A White House policy announced last month to establish a government-wide standard for “controlled unclassified information” (CUI) may exacerbate existing barriers to public access, even sweeping up embargoed press releases into a formal control category.
Instead of facilitating broad information sharing, as intended, CUI could end up as the equivalent of a fourth level of classification that tends to prohibit public access to information that has not been specifically approved for release.
One way to avoid that outcome is to increase the routine disclosure of unclassified records of public interest.
On June 11th, the House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment held hearings on the Improving Public Access to Documents Act of 2008 (H.R. 6193).
From Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:
Today, D.C. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued an opinion in CREW v. Office of Administration, finding that the Office of Administration (OA) is not an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).In May 2007, CREW sued OA for records regarding missing White House e-mail and the office’s assessment of the scope of the problem. After initially agreeing to provide records, OA changed course and claimed it was not an agency and, therefore, had no obligation to comply with the FOIA. OA made this claim despite the fact that even the White House’s own website described OA as an agency and included regulations for processing FOIA requests.
While acknowledging the question is a close one, Judge Kollar-Kotelly has found that OA is not an agency on the grounds that it does not exercise substantial independent authority.
Read the Opinion.
European Ombudsman Press Release:
The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has called on the European Parliament (EP) to defend the European Union’s commitment to transparency and the citizens’ right of access to EU documents. This follows the European Commission’s recent proposals to revise the law on public access to documents. In his contribution to today's public hearing in the EP's LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs), the Ombudsman said:"The Commission's proposals would mean access to fewer, not more, documents. This raises fundamental issues of principle about the EU's commitment to openness and transparency."
U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) today [June 3rd] introduced the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008 (S.3077), which would expand the information available on USASpending.gov, as well as make the data more accessible and readable. USASpending.gov (aka "Google for Government"), created by the Coburn-Obama Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 and launched in December 2007, makes public information about nearly all Federal grants, contracts, loans and other financial assistance available in a regularly updated, user-friendly, and searchable format.This new legislation would allow USASpending.gov visitors to view copies of Federal contracts, as well as information about competitive bidding, earmarks, government lease agreements, work quality, Federal audit disputes, any violations or criminal activities, Federal tax compliance, and government reports. It would also improve website searchability, provide a method to report errors, ensure data accuracy, and require a quality audit of the website every six months.
Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and John McCain (R-AZ) are original cosponsors of this legislation.
From the Associated Press:
A federal judge refused to rush the release of Hillary Rodham Clinton's phone records from her days as first lady and, in doing so Tuesday, offered a conservative watchdog group a manners lesson straight from the playground. . .. . . Robertson said the librarians were doing their job diligently and there was no evidence that the National Archives, which runs presidential libraries, was stalling the request.
From the Boston Globe:
A Maine public relations firm has been tapped to assist a grassroots effort aimed at stopping George W. Bush's presidential library, museum and think tank from being built at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.The Rev. Andrew Weaver, an SMU graduate from New York, says P&S Associates of Maine LLC has been hired to design ads and to coordinate the effort.
From the Guardian:
First, some very good news. Civil servants revealed last week that the British government has begun work on a system to make all the geospatial data it holds on the natural environment available for free inspection and re-use. Now the bad news. In this context, "free" means we will still have to pay to download much key data, especially if it is to be published or otherwise used commercially.
From NARA:
Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein announced today the establishment of the "Controlled Unclassified Information Office" (CUIO) within the National Archives and Records Administration. Weinstein also announced that William J. Bosanko, director of the Information Security Oversight Office, will head up this newly-formed office.The Office is being created in response to the Memorandum for the Heads of Departments and Agencies on the Designation and Sharing of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) issued by President Bush on May 9, 2008. The Presidential memorandum designated the National Archives as responsible for overseeing and managing the implementation of the CUI framework.
In creating the office, Professor Weinstein said, "I have provided Mr. Bosanko with a clear roadmap for the National Archives, as the executive agent and consistent with the President's direction, to ensure that only information which genuinely requires the protections afforded by the President's memorandum will be introduced into the CUI Framework."
From the Dallas Morning News:
National Archivist Allen Weinstein, who oversees America's 12 presidential libraries, assured 2008 graduates of Southern Methodist University that the 13th will be an asset to their alma mater – despite being the greatest controversy during their time at the school.
From the History News Network:
The president of the United States is often called the leader of the free world. It is no wonder that historians and political scientists consider the records related to presidential activities, policy, and decisionmaking so valuable for analyzing U.S. government policy at home and abroad. But over the last seven years there have been a series of moves by the current administration that may ensure that the records of the White House and the federal offices and agencies that work closely with the White House will not be available to historians.The problem is twofold. First, the Bush administration does not value (or may even be hostile to) the preservation and disclosure of records. Second, we have seen advances in technology that have transformed the way in which we all communicate. The juxtaposition of these circumstances may mean that primary sources on the most important decisions and activities in the government may be lost, destroyed, or closed to the public.
European Ombudsman Press Release:
The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has launched a consultation process within the European Network of Ombudsmen on access to information contained in databases. This follows a complaint from a Danish journalist about the refusal of the European Commission to disclose data on beneficiaries of EU agricultural subsidies. The Commission justified its refusal on grounds of confidentiality. Furthermore, it argued that the EU's rules on access to documents apply to databases only if the data can be easily retrieved.The Ombudsman was not convinced by this approach. He therefore contacted his colleagues in the Member States to find out about "best practices" at the national level aiming to ensure maximum public access to databases. This consultation is particularly important given that this issue at stake forms part of the current debate on the reform of the EU's rules on access to documents.
From the National Security Archive:
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is overwhelmed and behind the curve, facing huge increases in both electronic records and classified records, according to Congressional testimony today by National Security Archive director Tom Blanton.The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, chaired by Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), asked for the National Security Archive’s expert testimony for an oversight hearing on NARA under the title “Protecting Our Nation’s History for Future Generations.”
From the New York Times:
. . . Times reporters use FOIA aggressively, and it has been central to two major stories in just the last three weeks — Bernstein’s and an article by David Barstow on April 20 about a Pentagon program to cozy up to military analysts on television and radio in hopes of generating favorable coverage of the administration’s war on terror. But it is increasingly difficult to pry records that should be open out of federal agencies. A study last year by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government found that FOIA requests were becoming more backlogged, waits for information were getting longer and agencies were saying “no” more often, using one of nine exemptions in the law for such considerations as national security or privacy. . .
From Secrecy News:
The White House last week issued a long-awaited policy on “controlled unclassified information” (CUI) to provide a uniform government-wide system for safeguarding unclassified information that is deemed sensitive.The CUI framework is supposed to replace the numerous individual agency control markings — “sensitive but unclassified,” “for official use only,” and over a hundred other designations — and thereby to overcome barriers to information sharing within the government.
But the new policy will do nothing to restore public access to government records that have been improperly withheld.
From Open CRS:
Building upon a concept developed by the New York State Library and then the Wisconsin legislative reference department, Wisconsin's Senator Robert LaFollette and Representative John M. Nelson led an effort to direct the establishment of a special reference unit within the Library [of Congress] in 1914. Later known as the Legislative Reference Service, it was charged with responding to congressional requests for information. For more than 50 years, this department assisted Congress primarily by providing facts and publications and by transmitting research and analysis done largely by other government agencies, private organizations, and individual scholars. In 1970, Congress enacted a law transforming the Legislative Reference Service into the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and directing CRS to devote more of its efforts and increased resources to performing research and analysis that assists Congress in direct support of the legislative process. Joined today by two other congressional support agencies, including the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Research Service offers research and analysis to Congress on all current and emerging issues of national policy. CRS analysts work exclusively for Congress, providing assistance in the form of reports, memoranda, customized briefings, seminars, videotaped presentations, information obtained from automated data bases, and consultations in person and by telephone. This work is governed by requirements for confidentiality, timeliness, accuracy, objectivity, balance, and nonpartisanship. This report will be updated as circumstances warrant.
Read the full report.
Wednesday's Washington Post devoted the cover of its Style section and a full inside page to the National Security Archive, which the Post calls "the house that FOIA built and a mecca for document buffs."
For the full text, photos and graphics, see the article on washingtonpost.com.
From the National Security Archive:
The National Security Archive's Meredith Fuchs was featured May 5 in a Fox-5 News (WTTG) expose about the FBI's mismanaged secrets."The Fox News report would make anyone concerned about how well the FBI finds its own information for use in its investigations," commented Meredith Fuchs. "In addition, their failure to protect historically valuable records by transferring them to the National Archives may result in the loss or destruction of documentation that chronicles the Bureau's role investigating crimes throughout the latter part of the 20th century."
From the National Security Archive:
The White House yesterday admitted to a federal magistrate judge that it has no computer back-up tapes with data written before May 23, 2003, and that it cannot track the history of individual hard drives within the White House system that may contain missing e-mails.
From the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS):
The European Commission is publishing amendments to Regulation 1049/2001. The new regulation is an exercise more in clarification and codification, rather than more ambitious reform towards genuine freedom of information. The European Parliament and Council will need to look carefully at whether the adjustments reflect a balance between the interests of the public to have greater access to documents and those of the institutions to protect their decision-making processes. This is part of the European transparency initiative, but is transparency moving forward?
From OMBWatch:
Throughout 2007, OMB Watch diligently exposed assaults on public protections and fought for greater government accountability and performance. Our 2007 Annual Report offers you some highlights from the past year. . .. . . With a new administration on the horizon, no matter who is elected, we believe the change will open the door to new ideas. To help ensure that government accountability and openness issues are included, OMB Watch launched two initiatives in 2007 that will result in recommendations for the new U.S. president.
• One focuses on reducing government secrecy, demanding responsiveness to the public's right to know, and bringing government openness and disclosure policies and practices up to date with changes in technology.
• The second initiative is developing recommendations to improve the regulatory process and make it more responsive to public needs and interests. Our goals are to improve transparency and public participation in the process, restore scientific integrity, and recommend tools and management systems to make this happen.
You can read about all this and more in our 2007 Annual Report.
From the National Security Archive:
Responding to the National Security Archive's motion in the pending White House e-mail lawsuit, Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola of the U.S. District Court today ordered the White House to provide "precise information" about the users of the e-mail system from 2003 to 2005 and how many of their hard drives still survive today.Citing the "lack of precision" in White House statements and its changing story about which backup tapes have been preserved, Magistrate Judge Facciola also ordered the White House to "resolve any ambiguities … once and for all" and identify the specific dates between March 2003 and October 2003 for which no backup tape exists.
From the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives:
On Wednesday, April 23 2008, at 2:00 pm in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building, the [House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives] will hold a legislative hearing on H.R. 5811, the “Electronic Communications Preservation Act.” The bill will be introduced prior to Wednesday’s hearing and is expected to have both Chairman Henry Waxman of the Full Committee and Chairman Clay as the original cosponsors.H.R. 5811 will modernize federal recordkeeping by requiring agencies to begin preserving electronic records electronically. The bill requires such electronic preservation for electronic communications such as e-mails, but recommends that agencies preserve all electronic records electronically. In addition, H.R. 5811 creates oversight of the maintenance and preservation of presidential records, including e-mails sent and received by presidential advisors. The bill calls on the Archivist of the United States to establish standards for the management and preservation of these records and to certify that the president is meeting those standards.