Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act

Last updated
Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act
Great Seal of the United States (obverse).svg
Other short titles Presidential Recordings Preservation Act
Long title An Act to protect and preserve tape recordings of conversations involving former President Richard M. Nixon and made during his tenure as President, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial) PRMPA
Nicknames Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974
Enacted by the 93rd United States Congress
Effective December 19, 1974
Citations
Public law 93-526
Statutes at Large 88  Stat.   1695
Codification
Titles amended 44 U.S.C.: Public Printing and Documents
U.S.C. sections amended
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the Senateas S. 4016 by Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) on September 18, 1974
  • Committee consideration by Senate Government Operations, House Administration
  • Passed the Senate on October 4, 1974 (56-7)
  • Passed the House on December 3, 1974 (Passed) with amendment
  • Senate agreed to House amendment on December 9, 1974 (Agreed) with further amendment
  • House agreed to Senate amendment on December 9, 1974 (Agreed)
  • Signed into law by President Gerald Ford on December 19, 1974

The Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act (PRMPA) of 1974 (Pub.L. 93–526 , 88  Stat.   1695 , enacted December 19, 1974, codified at 44 U.S.C.   § 2111, note) is an act of Congress enacted in the wake of the August 1974 resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. [1] [2] It placed Nixon's presidential records into federal custody to prevent their destruction. The legislative action was intended to reduce secrecy, while allowing historians to fulfill their responsibilities.

<i>United States Statutes at Large</i>

The United States Statutes at Large, commonly referred to as the Statutes at Large and abbreviated Stat., are an official record of Acts of Congress and concurrent resolutions passed by the United States Congress. Each act and resolution of Congress is originally published as a slip law, which is classified as either public law or private law (Pvt.L.), and designated and numbered accordingly. At the end of a Congressional session, the statutes enacted during that session are compiled into bound books, known as "session law" publications. The session law publication for U.S. Federal statutes is called the United States Statutes at Large. In that publication, the public laws and private laws are numbered and organized in chronological order. U.S. Federal statutes are published in a three-part process, consisting of slip laws, session laws, and codification.

Title 44 of the United States Code outlines the role of public printing and documents in the United States Code.

An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. It can either be a Public Law, relating to the general public, or a Private Law, relating to specific institutions or individuals.

Contents

Application

The Act applies only to President Nixon's presidential materials. Under the statute, materials related to the Abuse of Governmental Power and the constitutional and statutory duties of the President and his White House staff are retained by the National Archives. The Act mandates that the National Archives preserve and process these materials, and prepare them for public access. The National Archives was required to segregate and return to Nixon's estate those materials identified as purely "personal-private" or "personal-political" and unrelated to the President's constitutional and statutory duties. [2] The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Act's constitutionality in Nixon v. Administrator of General Services .

Supreme Court of the United States Highest court in the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. Established pursuant to Article III of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, it has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, including suits between two or more states and those involving ambassadors. It also has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all federal court and state court cases that involve a point of federal constitutional or statutory law. The Court has the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution or an executive act for being unlawful. However, it may act only within the context of a case in an area of law over which it has jurisdiction. The court may decide cases having political overtones, but it has ruled that it does not have power to decide nonjusticiable political questions.

Legislative history

The Act was introduced as S. 4016 by Senator Gaylord Nelson on September 18, 1974; passed by both houses with amendments on December 9, 1974; and was signed into law by President Gerald Ford on December 19, 1974. [3]

United States Senate Upper house of the United States Congress

The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the legislature of the United States. The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol, in Washington, D.C.

Gaylord Nelson American politician

Gaylord Anton Nelson was an American politician and environmentalist from Wisconsin who served as a United States Senator and governor. A Democrat, he was the founder of Earth Day, which launched a new wave of environmental activism.

Gerald Ford 38th president of the United States

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from August 1974 to January 1977. Before his accession to the presidency, Ford served as the 40th vice president of the United States from December 1973 to August 1974. Ford is the only person to have served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office by the United States Electoral College.

See also

The Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978, 44 U.S.C. §§ 22012207, is an Act of Congress of the United States governing the official records of Presidents and Vice Presidents created or received after January 20, 1981, and mandating the preservation of all presidential records. Enacted November 4, 1978, the PRA changed the legal ownership of the official records of the President from private to public, and established a new statutory structure under which Presidents must manage their records. The PRA was amended in 2014, including prohibition of sending electronic records through non-official accounts unless an official account is copied on the transmission, or a copy is forwarded to an official account shortly after creation.

Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum presidential library and museum for U.S. President Richard Nixon in Yorba Linda, California

The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and burial site of Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th President of the United States (1969–1974), and his wife Pat Nixon.

Executive Order 13233 US presidential document

Executive Order 13233 limited access to the records of former United States Presidents to a higher degree than the previous Order 12667, which it superseded. It was drafted by then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and issued by George W. Bush on November 1, 2001. Section 13 of Order 13233 revoked Executive Order 12667 which was issued by Ronald Reagan on January 18, 1989.

Related Research Articles

United States Code official compilation and codification of the United States federal laws

The Code of Laws of the United States of America is the official compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal statutes of the United States. It contains 53 titles. The main edition is published every six years by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives, and cumulative supplements are published annually. The official version of those laws not codified in the United States Code can be found in United States Statutes at Large.

Promulgation is the formal proclamation or declaration that a new statutory or administrative law is enacted after its final approval. In some jurisdictions, this additional step is necessary before the law can take effect.

The Economic Stabilization Act of 1970 was a United States law that authorized the President to stabilize prices, rents, wages, salaries, interest rates, dividends and similar transfers. It established standards to serve as a guide for determining levels of wages, prices, etc., which would allow for adjustments, exceptions and variations to prevent inequities, taking into account changes in productivity, cost of living and other pertinent factors.

Presidential library research library with the collection of a U.S. presidents papers

In the United States, the presidential library system is a nationwide network of 13 libraries administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries, which is part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). These are repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, collections and other historical materials of every President of the United States from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush. In addition to the library services, museum exhibitions concerning the presidency are displayed.

93rd United States Congress 1973–1975 U.S. Congress

The Ninety-third United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1973, to January 3, 1975, during the end of Richard Nixon's presidency, and the beginning of Gerald Ford's. This Congress was the first Congress with more than two Senate Presidents, in this case, three. After the resignation of Spiro Agnew, Gerald Ford was appointed under the authority of the newly ratified 25th Amendment. Ford became President the next year and Nelson Rockefeller was appointed in his place. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Nineteenth Census of the United States in 1970. Both chambers had a Democratic majority.

Archivist of the United States chief official of the National Archives and Records Administration

The Archivist of the United States is the official overseeing the operation of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The first Archivist, R.D.W. Connor, began serving in 1934, when the National Archives was established as an independent federal agency by Congress. The Archivists served as subordinate officials of the General Services Administration from 1949 until the National Archives and Records Administration became an independent agency again on April 1, 1985. The position is held by David Ferriero, who was named to the office in 2009.

The Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the United States House of Representatives prepares and publishes the United States Code, which is a consolidation and codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. The Office was created in 1974 when the provisions of Title II, sec. 205, of H. Res. 988, 93rd United States Congress, were enacted by Public Law 93-554, 88 Stat. 1777.

National Emergencies Act

The National Emergencies Act (NEA) is a United States federal law passed to end all previous national emergencies and to formalize the emergency powers of the President.

Trade Act of 1974 Comprehensive United States trade law

The Trade Act of 1974 was passed to help industry in the United States become more competitive or phase workers into other industries or occupations.

United States Navy Regulations

United States Navy Regulations is the principal regulatory document of the Department of the Navy, endowed with the sanction of law, as to duty, responsibility, authority, distinctions and relationships of various officials, organizations and individuals.

Non-Detention Act

The Non-Detention Act of 1971 was passed to repeal portions of McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950, specifically Title II, the "Emergency Detention Act". The United States statute repealed the Emergency Detention Act of 1950 provisioning the United States Attorney General powers for detention of any American or non-American citizen deemed as a threat to the national security of the United States. The 64 Stat. 1019 statute was codified within Title 50 War and National Defense as 50 U.S.C. ch. 23, subch. II §§ 811-826.

Vice admiral is a three-star commissioned naval officer rank in the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps, with the pay grade of O-9. Vice admiral ranks above rear admiral and below admiral. Vice admiral is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant general in the other uniformed services.

The Gold Clause Cases were a series of actions brought before the Supreme Court of the United States, in which the court narrowly upheld restrictions on the ownership of gold implemented by the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to fight the Great Depression. The last in this series of cases is notable as the most recent Supreme Court opinion whose outcome was leaked to the press before the official release of its decision. The cases were:

Nixon v. General Services Administration, 433 U.S 425 (1977), is a landmark court case concerning the principle of presidential privilege and whether the public is allowed to view a President's “confidential documents”. The Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1974, ordered that the Administrator of General Services obtain President Richard Nixon’s presidential papers and tape recordings. In addition, the Act further ordered that government archivists seize these materials. These archivists would preserve the material deemed historic and return to former President Nixon the materials deemed private. Furthermore, this Act stated that material that was preserved could be used in judicial hearings and proceedings. Immediately after this Act was enacted, Richard Nixon filed a lawsuit in a federal district court claiming that the Act violated the principle of separation of powers, the principle of presidential privilege, Nixon's personal privacy, his First Amendment right of association, and further asserted that it amounted to a constitutionally prohibited Bill of Attainder.

Oklahoma Enabling Act

The Enabling Act of 1906, in its first part, empowered the people residing in Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory to elect delegates to a state constitutional convention and subsequently to be admitted to the union as a single union.

The Independent Safety Board Act (Pub. L. 93−633) is a 1974 law that ended all ties between the National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Department of Transportation. It was created to avoid possible conflicts between agencies.

References

  1. Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act (PRMPA) of 1974, Pub.L. 93–526, title I, §§ 101–106, Dec. 19, 1974, codified at 44 U.S.C. § 2111, note.
  2. 1 2 Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act (PRMPA) of 1974 at the U.S. National Archives
  3. All Actions for S. 4016, via search for Pub. L. 93-526 in 93rd Congress Public laws at Congress.gov

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates  public domain material from the National Archives and Records Administration website https://www.archives.gov/ .

National Archives and Records Administration independent agency of the United States government which preserves and provides access to federal records

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also tasked with increasing public access to those documents which make up the National Archive. NARA is officially responsible for maintaining and publishing the legally authentic and authoritative copies of acts of Congress, presidential directives, and federal regulations. NARA also transmits votes of the Electoral College to Congress.