In similar letters to two dozen departments and agencies, the head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee cautioned them to make sure that documents, communications and other records are properly maintained through the presidential transition.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who will continue in that role in the new Congress, wrote that there are numerous outstanding requests to those agencies for information that has not been produced, saying the panel’s investigations “were frequently delayed and impeded by executive branch official who inappropriately deleted relevant documents or conducted government business on unauthorized, non-government accounts.”
“To ensure the integrity of congressional investigations that may be necessary in the 115th Congress, please preserve all official records. The committee requests and expects you will exercise an abundance of caution, and keep everything,” he wrote.
He stress in particular that agencies keep all records relating to any regulation issued since July 1 or that will be issued before the change in administration.
The terms documents and records should be interpreted broadly, he said, for example to include all forms of data, and the duty to preserve extends beyond intentional destruction to encompass negligence or other handling that might make records incomplete or inaccessible.
