The House has passed by a vote of 286 to 137 the "Electronic Communications Preservation Act" designed to increase the role of the national archivist in getting agencies to preserve electronic communications, report on their compliance with related regulations, and get the archivist to report to congressional committees on that compliance.
HR-5811 would also require the archivist to promulgate regulations that include provisions for establishing standards necessary to manage presidential records during a president’s term of office.
The bill requires the archivist to certify whether White House records management controls meet the Act’s requirements and report to Congress on that status.
The White House threatened to veto the bill, saying it would "overturn the longstanding framework governing the management of an incumbent President’s records," and that it could "impose substantial costs and reduce the efficiency of records management across the Executive branch."
It also said the bill would enable the archivist to "intrude . . . into the activities of an incumbent president and his or her staff," as well as subject the President and White House offices to similar record keeping practices other agencies are subjected to.
It further objected to the vagueness of a provision requiring the capture, management and preservation of electronic messages that are records, and said the bill could impose unfunded costs on agencies.
The bill now moves to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
