Electronic Message Preservation Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1582) to amend title 44, United States Code, to require preservation of certain electronic records by Federal agencies, to require a certification and reports relating to Presidential records, and for other purposes.
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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the Electronic Message Preservation Act. This bill would update the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act to ensure that agencies save records created through electronic messages, including emails. This bill would require the Archivist of the United States to issue regulations mandating that all Federal agencies manage and preserve their email records electronically.
Agencies are already supposed to be saving emails electronically. In 2012, the Archivist and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget issued a directive that required agencies to do so. This bill would help ensure that email records from Federal agencies and the White House are all preserved.
According to a September 2018 report from the National Archives and Records Administration, approximately 35 percent of agencies continue to print and file hard copies of email messages. This means that these records are more likely to get lost, and they are harder for the agency to retrieve during records searches under the Freedom of Information Act.
This bill would put into statute what agencies are already required to do under a directive issued by the Archivist and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget in 2012. Agencies are required, under the directive, to save all permanent electronic records electronically by the end of 2019. Putting this requirement to save email records electronically into statute would show agencies to take this issue seriously.
This bill would also require the Archivist to establish standards for the preservation and management of Presidential email records and to certify, annually, that the White House has records management controls in place that meet those standards. The Archivist would be required, under this legislation, to report 1 year after the President leaves office on whether the controls used by the President met the required standards.
This bill has been introduced and passed by the House under multiple administrations. This is not a partisan bill for sure. It is a good government bill.
Madam Speaker, I urge all Members to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
If anything, I am surprised, perhaps shocked, that we have had to put the matter of electronic recordkeeping into statutory form to make sure it has happened.
We are deep into the electronic era, and perhaps, when you put a matter into statutory form, it finally is a matter of law and it gets people's attention. I certainly hope so.
Madam Speaker, I am prepared to yield back unless the gentleman has something more to say.
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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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