This message has been cross-posted. Apologies for any duplication.
Hello:
The following is from the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Aug. 14, 1998, p. A 29.
Please consider contacting your legislators and asking them to oppose the
provision in the conference bill. I've identified the Senate bill; it's
number S.2057, NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1999. I
can't identify the House version.
"A provision in a defense bill now before Congress ouwld essentially undo
President Clinton's 1995 executive order automatically declassfying
government documents after 25 years. The bill, if passed, would
significantly slow the government's process of making once-secret
documents public, and would impede scholars' access to the records.
"The measure is contained in a compromise bill that lawmakers from the
Senate and the House of Representatives are drafting to reconcile
differences between competing versions of legislation to extend the
authority of the Defense Department and of the defense-related activities
of the Department of Energy...At the urging of officials within the Energy
Department and of some Republican Senators, lawmakers had added to the
Senate's bill a provision that would require all federal agencies to
inspect, virtually page by page, all documents that are at least 25 years
old, to make sure that they do not contain any nuclear secrets."
Rob Richards
These comments are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of my
institution.
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Robert C. Richards, Jr., M.A., M.S.L.I.S
Technical Services Librarian
University of Colorado Law Library
Depository # 0074-C
Fleming Law Building
Kittredge Loop South
Campus Box 402
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0402
Telephone: (303) 492-2706
Fax: (303) 492-2707
E-mail: rrichard@stripe.Colorado.EDU
URL: http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~rrichard
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