Historians Urge Protection of Access to Presidential Records

Public access to presidential records came under scrutiny in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday as a panel of archivists, historians, and lawyers told a subcommittee about threats to access, and lawmakers introduced two bipartisan bills that would reform key aspects of how presidential documents are preserved and controlled.

At a hearing of the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, witness after witness told lawmakers that public access to those records was in serious jeopardy. The hearing had been convened to assess how the executive branch has complied with the Presidential Records Act of 1978.

Thomas S. Blanton, director of George Washington University's National Security Archive, called the act "one of the glories of our democracy," and said it was facing a "crisis."

Two leading historians, Anna K. Nelson and Robert Dallek, talked about the importance of access to presidential records. "We need to think of presidential records as raw material, like iron ore," Ms. Nelson, a distinguished historian in residence at American University, said.