Capitol CommentaryLee WhiteVisit the National Coalition for History online. |
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Vice President Under Fire For Refusing to Comply with Security Oversight By a vote of 15-14, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on July 12, to strip language from the Financial Services and General Government fiscal year (FY) 2008 appropriations bill that would have withheld funding for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) until it complied with Executive Order (EO) 12958, as amended. The EO mandates that executive branch departments, agencies, commissions, and “any other entity within the executive branch,” report to the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) at the National Archives on their procedures for handling and safeguarding classified materials. Controversy arose in June when it was revealed by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee that Vice President Cheney had refused to comply with Executive Order 12958, as amended, and report to the National Archives on their classification activities. The OVP initially claimed that it was not an executive branch entity—since the vice president also had legislative responsibilities as President of the Senate—and therefore not subject to the executive order. When the Senate Financial Services and General Government Appropriations’ Subcommittee marked up its bill on July 10, it included language that withheld funding for the activities of the vice president until the OVP complied with the reporting requirements under the EO. After the subcommittee markup, its Chairman Richard Durbin (D-IL) received a letter from White House General Counsel Fred Fielding stating the position that the president had never intended that the OVP be covered when he issued the executive order. At the full committee markup, Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) introduced an amendment to strike the language compelling the vice president to comply with the executive order. Democratic Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska broke ranks with his party and supported the Brownback amendment, thus giving the Republicans the one vote margin they needed to adopt the amendment. As adopted, the Brownback amendment included language suggested by Nelson expressing the “sense of the Senate” that the administration should amend the executive order to state specifically that the vice president is exempt from the classification reporting requirements. During House consideration of the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill (H.R. 2829), a similar amendment eliminating funding for the Office of the Vice President until he complied with the executive order failed by a 209-217 vote. Executive Order 12958 sets up a system for classifying, safeguarding and declassifying national security information. One of ISOO’s main functions is to oversee the security classification programs in federal agencies and to ensure compliance with its standards through inspections of federal agency records and procedures. In 2006, the OVP refused to comply with ISOO’s inspection and reporting requirements on the grounds that it did not fall within the definition of “agency” as set forth in EO 12958. The Office of Vice President asserted that it was not an “entity within the executive branch” and thus exempt from having to report its security classification activities to ISOO. In 2006, the ISOO sent two separate letters to the Office of the Vice President requesting that it comply with the executive order and allow ISOO access to their records. Both requests were ignored. In January 2007, the ISOO sent a letter to Attorney General Gonzales requesting his interpretation as to whether the vice president’s office was an “agency” and subject to the reporting requirements of the executive order. Again, no response was forthcoming. Executive Order 12958 is currently being revised. ISOO Director J. William Leonard told the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee that during the interagency review of the proposed changes, the Office of the Vice President sought to abolish the ISOO and also to amend the EO to include a provision exempting the OVP from oversight. Leonard stated that the interagency review group had rejected the OVP’s recommendations. Fiscal Year 2008 Appropriations As Congress heads towards its annual monthlong August recess, fiscal year 2008 funding levels for federal agencies and programs of interest to the historical community are beginning to emerge.
On June 28, 2007, the House of Representatives, by a vote of 240-179 approved the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill (H.R. 2829). The bill includes $315 million ($2.1 million above the president’s request, and $35.7 million above fiscal year 2007) for operating expenses of the National Archives. The Committee Report (H. Rept. 110-207) accompanying the bill directs that the $2.1 million in additional funding be used to restore evening and weekend hours for public research at the archives that were eliminated last October. The bill also includes $10 million for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for grants to states, local governments, universities, local historical societies, and others to help preserve and archive materials of historic significance. The Committee Report (H. Rept. 110-207) directs that the $10 million will be split: $8 million for grants and $2 million for administrative costs. The president’s proposed fiscal year (FY) 2008 budget had targeted the NHPRC for elimination. The $10 million reflects a $2.5 million increase over FY 2007. On July 12, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the fiscal year 2008 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill. The bill included $10 million for the NHPRC, the same amount passed by the House. Unlike the House, the Senate Committee Report language does not direct how the funding should be allocated between grants and administrative costs. The bill includes $313.9 million for operating expenses of the National Archives. This funding level is $1.1 million above the president’s request, $1.1 million less than the House approved in its bill (H.R. 2829), and $34.6 million above fiscal year 2007 budget. The Electronic Records Archive program will receive $58 million, the same as the amount provided in the House bill and the president’s request. This is a $12 million increase from last year. It is unlikely that the Senate will consider the bill before it leaves for its August recess.
On July 11, 2007, the House Appropriations Committee cleared its Labor, Health and Human Services and Education fiscal year (FY) 2008 budget bill. The committee approved $119.79 million for the Teaching American History grants program at the U.S. Department of Education, the same amount as in FY 2007. This amount is $210,000 less than approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee in its bill (S. 1710), but is $69.79 million more than the president’s request.
On June 27, 2007, by a vote of 272-155, the House of Representatives passed the FY 2008 Interior and Related Agencies spending bill (HR 2643). The bill includes $160 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities. This amount represents a $19 million increase over the president’s budget proposal and the FY 2007 enacted level. The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved its version of the bill (S. 1696) on June 21. The bill provides $146 million for the NEH, only a $5 million increase above both the FY 2007 level and the president’s request. National Archives Takes Control On July 11, 2007, the legal transfer of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace from the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation to the National Archives and Records Administration took place. Concurrently with the transfer, the new Nixon Library opened approximately 78,000 pages of previously withheld materials. Approximately 58,000 pages come from the Special Files, which were created by the Nixon White House to segregate the most sensitive information from the White House Central Files. Included in the Special Files are Nixon’s personal files, his office files, and the files of his closest aides such as John Dean, H.R. Haldeman, Charles Colson, and John Ehrlichman. The remaining approximate 20,000 pages are from the White House Central Files. Additionally, 165 tape-recorded conversations totaling over 11 hours were released. The Nixon Foundation, as part of the transfer agreement, donated to the National Archives approximately 800 hours from the Nixon White House Tapes previously removed from the tapes according to the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974. The National Archives intends to release the remaining tapes from November 1972 in mid-2008. Selected documents and conversations from all of the newly released tapes are available at the Nixon Library’s web site <http://www.nixonlibrary.gov>. All of the newly released tapes and newly released documents are also available for research in the research room at the Nixon Library and at the National Archives facility in College Park, MD. Lee White is the executive director of the National Coalition for History. He can be reached at lwhite at historycoalition dot org. |
