In from Roger Hall (RHall8715@aol.com):



ACCESS TO PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS REVISITED



A 2001 Bush executive order that imposed new restrictions on

public access to presidential records from past administrations

would be overturned under bipartisan legislation that was

introduced in the House of Representatives last week.



A White House decision in March 2001 to defer the public

disclosure of unclassified Reagan-era records that had been

mandated by the Presidential Records Act was one of the earliest

signs of the new climate of secrecy favored by the Bush

Administration.



The November 2001 executive order 13233 on presidential records

pressed that secrecy to an outlandish extreme, proposing a novel

form of executive privilege that could be passed on to a deceased

President's descendants like some kind of hereditary kingship.



"The Order violates not only the spirit but also the letter of the

Presidential Records Act," said Rep. Doug Ose (R-CA) last week.

"It undercuts the public's rights to be fully informed about

how its government operated in the past."



Rep. Ose and several co-sponsors of both parties reintroduced

legislation on March 27 that would legally revoke the Bush order

on presidential records. (Prior legislation along the same lines

expired with the last Congress.) See his introductory statement

on "Revocation of Executive Order Limiting Access to Presidential

Records" here:



http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2003/h032703.html


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