Presidential Electronic Records

By Cliff Montgomery – July 9th, 2014The chief law governing the preservation of White House records may not properly ensure the maintenance of media associated with “new and sometimes ephemeral technologies like email, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube” a recent federal study has declared.But “Congress has the authority to revise or enhance record-keeping requirements for the incumbent Presidents, including requiring a more systematic method of collecting and maintaining email or Internet records,” added the report.The study was created by the Congressional Research Service it was released on May 30th.Below, The American Spark quotes major segments of the report:“Presidential documents are historical resources that capture each incumbent’s conduct in presidential office. Pursuant to the Presidential Records Act (PRA) […], the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) collects most records of former Presidents and former Vice Presidents at the end of each Administration.“They are then disclosed to the public—unless the Archivist of the United States, the incumbent President, or the appropriate former President requests the records be kept private.”“The PRA requires the collection of all presidential records, including those created on electronic platforms… [and] the provisions of the PRA have remained relatively unchanged since the law’s 1978 enactment, except for several technical amendments. Incumbent Presidents, however, have varied widely in how they chose to interpret the PRA.“Additionally, Presidents from both major political parties have faced questions and concerns about their abilities to maintain accurate, comprehensive, and accessible archives, especially considering their increasing use of electronic—and perhaps ephemeral—platforms like email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and YouTube.”“Presidential records are captured and maintained by the incumbent President and provided to NARA upon departure from office. The records are then placed in the appropriate presidential repository—usually a presidential library created by a private foundation, which is subsequently deeded or otherwise provided to the federal government.“According to data from NARA, the volume of records created by Presidents has been growing exponentially, and the platforms used to create records are also expanding.“On his first full day in office, President Barack H. Obama issued an executive order that grants the incumbent President and relevant former Presidents 30 days to review records prior to their release to the public. E.O. 13489 changed the presidential record preservation policies promulgated by the George W. Bush Administration through E.O. 13233.“Congress has the authority to revise or enhance record-keeping requirements for the incumbent Presidents, including requiring a more systematic method of collecting and maintaining email or Internet records. Congress might consider modifying the length of time an incumbent or former President has to review records and decide whether they should be released to the public.“Congress might also act to examine whether the incumbent President is appropriately capturing all records in every available medium and whether NARA can appropriately retain these records and make them available to researchers and the general public in perpetuity.”