Bills passed in the House would overturn President Bush’s executive order extending the length of time presidential records can be sealed and would require disclosure of donors and donations to presidential libraries, according to Real Clear Politics and CNN’s Politics.com. -DR
RealClearPolitics Politics Nation Blog
January 08, 2009
House Passes First Bills Of The Session
The House passed its first two bills of the 111th session yesterday, with both carrying ramifications for the outgoing president. Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), the newly-minted chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, introduced both the Presidential Records Act Amendments and the Presidential Library Donation Reform Act, which were agreed to separately by more-than 300-vote majorities.
The amendments to the Presidential Records Act of 1978 would overturn Executive Order 13233, which President Bush issued in November 2001 to allow for an extended delay of the release of presidential records, perhaps even beyond a president’s death. Uproar over the move began immediately from both sides of the aisle, as it benefited both Bush and Bill Clinton.
“President Bush’s executive order created an imbalanced and restrictive process,” Towns said. “The Presidential Records Act preserves the important intent of the original post-Watergate law, which was to assure timely accessibility and preservation of official White House records for historical and, if necessary, legal purposes.”
The second bill requires the disclosure of donors and donations to Presidential libraries to be made public. With Clinton and Bush’s libraries soaring in cost to the hundreds of millions, this legislation aims for more transparency to the fundraising operations taking place, particularly while presidents are still in office.
“With the Presidential Library Donation Act, we will do away with anonymous donations by foreign countries and nationals, and make certain that the process is transparent to the public,” Towns said.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the former Oversight committee chairman, introduced similar bills in 2007 that passed through the House easily before stalling in the Senate. A veto threat hung over the bill as well, but President-elect Obama is expected to support the measure.
The next action on the legislation will likely take place in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, where it has a friend in Chairman Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.). A Lieberman aide said the senator strongly supports the bill and worked tirelessly to get it passed during the last session.
Lieberman penned an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News last year calling on Bush’s records and library donors to be available to the public. Bush’s presidential library will be housed at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
A Towns aide told Real Clear Politics that the Oversight chairman is very optimistic the bill will pass this time, as it holds some advantages it lacked during the last session: an increased majority in the Senate and Bush leaving office.
“President-elect Obama and House Democrats agree on the need to increase transparency in the federal government, and these reforms will provide a new level of openness for the incoming Administration,” Towns said.
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January 8, 2009
Two of the first bills of the new Congress would affect Bush
Posted: 04:33 PM ET
From CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand
(CNN) — Two of the first bills passed by the 111th Congress yesterday had less to do with the incoming president than they did with the man he’s replacing.
One measure would amend the Presidential Records Act of 1978 to overturn President Bush’s 2001 executive order that extended the length of time that presidential records can remain sealed.
The other would require full fundraising disclosure for presidential libraries. The lack of an existing requirement became an issue for former President Bill Clinton when his wife Hillary Clinton was tapped to serve as Obama’s secretary of state.
The former president eventually opted to release the full list of donors and the size of their donations.
Both the measures, introduced by House Oversight and Government Reform committee chairman Edolphus Towns of New York, passed by overwhelming majorities.
The bills have the strong support of Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee chairman Joe Lieberman, who has publicly called on Bush to make both his records and the full list of contributors to his presidential library open to the public.
Similar efforts, pushed by former Oversight chairman Henry Waxman, drew overwhelming support in the House, but did not make it through the Senate, and did not have the support necessary to override a likely presidential veto.