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(FWD) NCC Washington Update, Vol 6 #14, April 28, 2000



NCC Washington Update, Vol 6, #14, April 28, 2000
   by Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating
      Committee for the Promotion of History <pagem@capaccess.org>

1.   Independent Counsel Subpoenas The Archives'
          Guidance to White House on E-Mail
2.   National Archives Seeks Comment on
           Proposal to Increase Copying Fees
3.   Senate Passes Amendments to
           National Historic Preservation Act

1.  Independent Counsel Subpoenas Archives' Guidance to White House on
E-Mail - Robert Ray, the Independent Counsel who inherited from Ken
Starr the investigations of the Clinton Administration, recently issued
a subpoena to the National Archives for documents related to the
record-keeping practices of the executive office of the President.  Ray
is investigating whether the White House deliberately concealed e-mail
messages when responding to subpoenas from the grand jury as well as
from congressional committees.

A spokeswoman for the Archivist has said that the National Archives
would be complying with the request.  It is important to note that this
request to the National Archives is not for the e-mail records, which
are still in the custody of the Office of the President, but are for the
National Archives' guidance and advice to the White House on record
keeping.  Unlike the regulations that allow agencies to destroy e-mail
messages if paper copies are printed, all White House e-mail records are
preserved and will eventually be transferred to the Presidential
Libraries which are part of the National Archives. In 1993 as a result
of 1989 litigation between the National Archives and Public Citizen over
the preservation of the e-mail of Oliver North and John Poindexter, the
National Archives instituted procedures for preserving White House
e-mail.  And these procedures are still in place.

2.  National Archives Seeks Comment on Proposal to Increase Copying Fees
- On April 25 the National Archives published a proposed rule in the
Federal Register seeking comments on the revision of its fee schedule
for reproduction of records in its custody.  The National Archives
states that these proposed changes are being made to enable the National
Archives to recover its costs due to increases in materials and
machines.  Under the proposed fees for self-service, which represents
approximately 46 percent of the reproduction volume, there would be an
increase of 5 cents a copy. This would make paper-to-paper copies 15
cents and microfilm-to-paper copies 30 cents per copy.

The proposed rule also makes several changes in the fixed-fee orders
including the discontinuation of the practice of selecting documents and
providing only partial files.  Under the proposed rule, all fixed fee
orders will include the entire file.  As the National Archives notes,
the most dramatic impact of this change will be that people who order
military pension files will receive much larger full files that average
105 pages instead of a selection of 14 to 20 pages.  A full explanation
of the changes may be seen on the National Archives' web site at
<http://www.nara.gov/nara/fees-pro.html> The deadline for comment is
June 26, 2000.

3.  Senate Passes Amendments to National Historic Preservation Act - On
April 13 the Senate passed its version of H.R. 834, which they titled
the National Historic Preservation Act Amendments of 2000.  This
legislation extends the  authorization of the Historic Preservation Fund
until 2005, allows the National Trust for Historic Preservation to
receive federal grants for special purposes;  extends the authorization
of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation until 2005:  and gives
statutory authority to Executive Order 13006 which calls on federal
agencies to give priority to historic properties when acquiring or
leasing buildings.  The House passed a similar bill on September 21,
1999.  Since there are relatively minor differences between the House
and Senate bills, no problems are anticipated by the House and Senate
conferees who will negotiate the final language.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** *  * * * * * * * * * *
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