The public documents commission: Politics and presidential records

Abstract

The history of the Public Documents Commission and the Presidential Records Act begins with the events of the closing months of the Nixon Presidency. In order to assume control of the Nixon records and tapes. Congress quickly enacted the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act. Title II of the Act established the Public Documents Commission. It was thought that careful study by this Commission would lead to carefully developed legislation concerning presidential records. However, for reasons inherent in the organization of the Commission, it unfortunately had only a peripheral effect upon the legislation. The Commission was subject to casual decisions by the Ford Administration and dominated by its Chairman, Herbert Brownell. Its history is one of division and disagreement. The final result was the submission to the President and Congress of two reports—a majority report and an alternate report signed only by one commissioner and the chairman. As a result, no leadership was exerted to ensure the passage of a thoughtful Presidential Records Act. Impetus for legislation came from an interested member of Congress who had had no affiliation with the Commission and little knowledge of the body of material it had gathered. The Act finally passed into law through compromise with a White House more concerned with its own records than the far reaching effects of the legislation.