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(FWD) NCC Washington Update, Vol 6, #11, April 5, 2000



NCC Washington Update, Vol 6, #11, April 5, 2000
   by Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating
      Committee for the Promotion of History <pagem@capaccess.org>

1.  NHPRC Reauthorization Hearing
2.  National Archives Issues Critical Report on
         Records Management at CIA

1.  NHPRC Reauthorization Hearing - On April 4 the House Subcommittee on
Government Management, Information, and Technology held a hearing on
H.R. 4110, which provides for the reauthorization of the grants program
of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission for the
fiscal years 2002 through 2005 with an appropriation ceiling of $10
million.  The very cordial two hour hearing chaired by Representative
Steve Horn (R-CA), a political scientist and the former President of the
University of California at Long Beach, reflected the chairs great
interest in and commitment to preserving and making available historical
documents.  The Subcommittee heard testimony from five witnesses:
Archivist John Carlin, Executive Director of NHPRC Ann Clifford Newhall,
President of the Newberry Library Charles Cullen, Anne
Gilliland-Swetland of the Department of Information Studies at UCLA, and
Congressman Roy Blunt (R-MO), who represents the House at the NHPRC
commission meetings.

The witnesses all spoke of the valuable contributions of the NHPRC in
providing grants for safeguarding non-federal records of significance to
the nation's history.  Carlin highlighted the NHPRC's role in preserving
state records.  Newhall addressed the NHPRC's statutory mission and its
work to fulfill its strategic goals of supporting founding era
documentary editing projects, working with state historical records
advisory boards, meeting the challenges posed by electronic records, and
assisting with a wide variety of other projects, including documentary
editions other than the Founding Era projects and archival education
projects.  Cullen emphasized that documentary editions benefits the
entire American public, not just serious scholars, and Gilliland
-Swetland asserted that the NHPRC has single-handedly been responsible
for most of the knowledge gains and developments that have occurred in
the field of archiving electronic records in the last decade.
Representative Blunt described the role of NHPRC in helping to preserve
the records that document the often-overlooked story of workers in the
Ozarks.

In the question and answer portion of the hearing, Representative Judy
Biggert (R-IL) joined Horn in asking a number of questions related to
electronic records, making records accessible, training of future
archivists, and security and funding issues. Horn expressed interest in
the number of volumes of documentary editions that are published and
stated the need for greater distribution of these volumes.  In answer to
Horn's question of whether the Congress should increase the authorized
ceiling for NHPRC appropriations, Carlin responded that we should see in
the near future the current $6 million appropriated level getting closer
to the $10 million ceiling.

2.  National Archives Issues Critical Report on Records Management at
CIA - The National Archives has an ongoing program of evaluating in
depth the records management practices of approximately six federal
agencies a year.  As a part of this effort, the National Archives has
just released its report "Records Management in the Central Intelligence
Agency." While acknowledging that the CIA currently has many elements of
a good records management program, the report states that the program
has "serious shortcomings that must be rectified."  The 56 page report
focuses on issues of adequacy of documentation, preservation concerns,
the need to revise schedules on retention and destruction of records,
and handling of electronic files.  In preparing the report the National
Archives staff, with the assistance of CIA staff, visited over 30 major
program offices and a large number of their subordinate components and
examined all aspects of the creation, maintenance and use, and
disposition of records of the CIA.

Unlike most federal agencies, the CIA schedules call for historical
records to be transferred to the custody of the National Archives after
50 years, not the usual 30 years or less.  Established in 1947, the CIA
has retained most of its records.  The report points out that the
National Archives' holdings of CIA records are "skimpy and unsystematic"
and consist primarily of copies of documents often drawn from many
separate records series.  "Even the most comprehensive of these
collections, the Soviet estimates," the report states "consists solely
of copies of the final estimates themselves, not the related background
papers that document their formulation."  The report identified a number
of unacceptable practices, such as classifying the record descriptions
in the schedules for the retention and destruction of records.  The
report states that this practice is "not warranted and serves only to
create misperceptions and arouse suspicion" for these descriptions
pertain to broad subjects and not specific operations or issues.

The report also discusses the CIA's destruction in the 1960s of files of
the 1953 operation in Iran, a subject that was highlighted by the media
in 1997.  In response to National Archives inquiries following the media
reports, the CIA claimed that the records relating to the Iran covert
action were destroyed in keeping with Archives' approved schedules.
However this report states that there was no schedule in effect that
provided for the destruction of these records and that the CIA's
"destruction of records related to Iran was unauthorized."

The report thus concludes that "CIA retention of permanent files for 50
years is no longer appropriate" now that the Cold War has ended.  The
report stresses that permanent records should be transferred to the
National Archives in coherent blocks, not individual documents drawn
from a variety of separate files, the current CIA practice.  The report
sets as a goal the transfer to the National Archives by the end of 2003
of most of the permanent CIA files created prior to President Kennedy's
inauguration in 1961.  These files, the report states, should include
the files of the Director of Central Intelligence and other high level
policy offices, the finished intelligence products and related
background papers, and files of offices concerned with budgetary
matters, legal issues, and congressional relations.  This report may be
seen on the Federation of American Scientists' web site at
<http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/naracia.html>

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