NYT: Historians Fight Bush on Access to Papers

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/books/08arch.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Historians Fight Bush on Access to Papers


By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: March 8, 2007

snip//

“I visited the Bush library in 1999, expecting to be able to look at” the Malta transcript, said Thomas S. Blanton, executive director of an independent research institute called the National Security Archive at George Washington University. He filed a Freedom of Information Act request but said, “I still don’t have it, and there’s no telling when I will.”

President George W. Bush’s 2001 executive order restricted the release of presidential records by giving sitting presidents the power to delay the release of papers indefinitely, while extending the control of former presidents, vice presidents and their families. It also changed the system from one that automatically released documents 30 days after a current or former president is notified to one that withholds papers until a president specifically permits their release.

Today the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is scheduled to discuss a new bill that would overturn Mr. Bush’s order, said a committee spokeswoman, Karen Lightfoot. The sponsors, who include the committee chairman, Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, hope to bring the bill to the floor of the House next week.

Allen Weinstein, the archivist of the United States, said yesterday that the order was not being used to prevent presidential papers from reaching the public, but that obviously “it has been increasing the time and delays, which are endemic.” The backlog of requests for documents now extends up to five years.

To Mr. Weinstein the biggest problem is the lack of resources and trained archivists. Every former president has brought a new flood of documents and prompted an increase in requests for them. Meanwhile a recent budget freeze has reduced the overall number of positions. Mr. Weinstein said his staff was working on ways to improve efficiency, like packaging similar types of requests together.

Mr. Blanton blamed the archive’s previous leadership for initially failing to respond to added pressures on the system. But he made clear that the latest executive order has significantly worsened the problem. At a congressional hearing last week he said that waiting time at the Reagan Presidential Library had increased to six and a half years from 18 months in 2001.

“There was a fair, reasonable, orderly, clear, sensible and workable process for presidential records in place during the 1990s,” which Mr. Bush’s executive order “overturned and replaced with the opposite,” Mr. Blanton testified. It “is not just wrong, it’s stupid.”

more...

[susu369]

1. Go Waxman!!!!!

One of the first evil moves bu$h* made after he was selected to be President. It has bothered me immensely.

:kick:

[MasonJar]

2. Good old Grover's slimy paw, withholding funds for adequate

number of archivists in order "to drown the government in the bathtub" fits right in with Bush's "executive" order.

[babylonsister]

3. It also sounds like * is trying to preserve his 'legacy'. Like he's said,

once he's dead, history will decide (and he won't care).

[Pryderi]

4. I posted a video of the hearing in the Political Video section that you can view here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x18324

[Dudley_DUright]

5. "... is not just wrong, it’s stupid.”

Pretty much sums up every decision Bush has ever made.