Capitol Commentary

Lee White

Visit the National Coalition for History online.

Congress Punts on Fiscal Year 2009 Budget

Before leaving for their election campaigns, Congress passed a continuing budget resolution for fiscal year 2009 to keep federal agencies and programs running until March 6, 2009. FY 2009 began on October 1, 2008. Aside from defense, homeland security, and veterans programs, all other federal agencies will continue to be funded at the current FY ’08 level.

Federal Court Orders Vice President Cheney to Preserve Records

On September 20, 2008, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered the office of Vice President Dick Cheney to preserve all records related to his office and the performance of his duties. The order came as a result of a lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, together with the OAH, the AHA, the Society of American Archivists, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and historians Stanley Kutler and Martin Sherwin.

On September 8, CREW filed a complaint against Vice President Cheney, the Office of the Vice President (OVP), the Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The petitioners argued that without judicial intervention on January 20, 2009, a vast majority of Vice President Cheney’s records will not be transferred to NARA, as required by Presidential Records Act (PRA), for eventual release to the public, but instead will remain under the vice president’s custody and control. The plaintiffs sought an order mandating preservation of all of the vice president’s records pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

In granting the preliminary injunction, Judge Kollar-Kottelly’s opinion validates the plaintiffs’ concerns that “[t]hose unprotected documents could be transferred to other entities, destroyed, or not preserved, and if any of these events occur, the damage is inherently irreparable; once documentary material is gone, it cannot be retrieved.”  

The vice president is currently seeking to have the court’s order vacated and is trying to halt discovery in the case.

Over the past few years, the vice president and OVP have repeatedly maintained that they are not part of the executive branch, and it is such claims that precipitated the lawsuit. For example, on June 26, 2008, VP Chief of Staff David Addington testified before the House Judiciary Committee that the vice president belongs to neither branch but is attached by the Constitution to Congress.

Archivists and Historians Force Release of Rosenberg Grand Jury Records

On September 11, 2008, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) opened formerly secret Grand Jury testimony transcripts from the trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg more than fifty years after they were indicted on espionage charges, convicted, and executed. The release of the previously secret transcripts resulted from a successful lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, the OAH, AHA, the American Society for Legal History, the Society of American Archivists, and New York Times reporter Sam Roberts almost eight months ago.

NARA released 940 pages of transcripts from 41 of 45 witnesses’ appearances before the Rosenberg grand jury between August 1950 and March 1951. Testimony of three witnesses:  David Greenglass, Max Elichter, and William Danziger, was withheld due to objections by the witnesses.

In July, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said that the government must release most of the sealed grand jury records from the Rosenberg trials.

The transcripts are available on both the National Security Archive <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20080911/index.htm> and NARA’s web sites <http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/topics/courts/rosenberg-jury.html>. The National Archives Regional Archives Research Room in New York City, located at 201 Varick Street 12th Floor, has reference copies of the documents.

Congress Passes Bill Making Major Changes at NARA & NHPRC

In September, Congress passed, and sent to the president for his signature, legislation (S. 3477) to make changes in major program areas at the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Here is a summary:

▪ Creates Grants for Presidential Centers of Historical Excellence—The Archivist of the United States, with advice of NHPRC, may make competitive grants to non-profit entities or state or local governments to promote the historical preservation of, and public access to, historical records and documents related to any former president who does not have an archival depository administered by NARA under the Presidential Libraries Act.

▪ Term limits for NHPRC Members—An NHPRC member cannot be appointed for a term of more than two years and is limited to four terms. The bill requires members to recuse themselves from voting on any matter that poses a conflict of interest or may benefit the entity they represent.

▪ Online Access of Founding Fathers Documents—The Archivist may enter into cooperative agreements to provide online access to the published papers of Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Madison, and “other prominent historical figures as determined appropriate by the Archivist of the United States.”

▪ Advisory Committee on Founding Fathers Editorial Projects—The Archivist may appoint an advisory committee to review the progress of the Founding Fathers projects funded by the NHPRC. The advisory committee may also, in consultation with the Founding Fathers projects, set appropriate completion goals. The advisory committee shall be comprised of three “nationally recognized historians” appointed for no more than two consecutive four-year terms.

▪ Capital Improvement Plan for Presidential Archival Depositories—The bill requires NARA to provide as part of its annual budget submission to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, a ten-year capital improvement plan for the Presidential Library System.

▪ Changes to Endowment Requirements for Presidential Libraries—The bill increases the endowment percentage requirement for land, construction, and equipment installation from the current forty percent to sixty percent.

▪ National Database for Records of Servitude, Emancipation, and Post-Civil War Reconstruction—The legislation allows the National Archives to create an electronically searchable database of historic records of servitude, emancipation, and post-Civil War reconstruction contained within federal agencies for genealogical and historical research and to assist in the preservation of these records.

The bill gives the NHPRC the authority to provide grants to states, colleges and universities, and genealogical associations to preserve records and establish databases of local records of such information.

Historians Urge Congress to Strengthen the Presidential Records Act

On September 5, 2008, the Center for American Progress Action sent a letter from thirty prominent historians to the leadership of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate urging reform of the Presidential Records Act. The OAH, AHA, and the National Coalition for History also endorsed the letter. To see a copy of the letter, go to the following link <http://www.americanprogressaction.org /issues/2008/pdf/presidential_records_act1.pdf>.

Action in Congress on legislation (H.R 1255, S. 886) to revoke President Bush’s Executive Order 13233 has been stymied by Senate Republicans who have placed a hold on the bill. EO 13233 granted unprecedented powers to delay the release of a president’s and vice president’s records after they leave office. The House passed the Presidential Records Reform bill by an overwhelming margin in 2007.

Coalition Works to Prevent Wal-Mart Store Adjacent to Civil War Battlefield

Evoking memories of the Walt Disney Company’s efforts to build a theme park near the Manassas Battlefield in the early 1990s, Wal-Mart, Stores, Inc., is planning to build a 145,000-square-foot “Wal-Mart Supercenter” in Orange County, Virginia, a quarter-mile from the Wilderness Battlefield National Park.

The National Coalition for History has joined a Wilderness Battlefield Coalition that has been formed to fight the development. The Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, formed by the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) also includes Piedmont Environmental Council, National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Parks Conservation Association, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, and Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields. The Wilderness Coalition argues that the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter would lead to more traffic, sprawl, and destructive development in the area surrounding the battlefield.

The Wilderness saw more than 180,000 troops engaged in a two-day battle that left 18,000 Union and 10,000 Confederate troops killed, wounded, or captured. The battle also marked the first showdown between Generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.

Today more than 2,773 acres of the Wilderness Battlefield are preserved as part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. The Wal-Mart is proposed for a 55-acre parcel in Orange County directly across the road from the battlefield. For more information on the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition and to learn how you can get involved in their efforts to oppose the Wal-Mart project, visit the CWPT website at <http://www.civilwar.org/walmart08/>.