Nomination Process Moves Slowly. As we go to press, the White House has not announced the nomination of a candidate to serve as US Archivist. Neither has the Senate acted on the nomination of Edward Curran for the position of Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Although several tentative dates in June and July were set for Curran’s confirmation hearing, the date has been postponed to October 2. Several Senators have voiced concern that Curran is an inappropriate choice for this post because of his limited experience with higher education and public humanities programs.
1986 Budget Begins to Take Shape. Although the budget process is not complete, there is some initial good news for the grants program of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. In spite of the Administration’s recommendation for zero funding, the House Appropriations Committee has recommended for FY’86 $4 million, current level funding, for the NHPRC grants program. For the National Endowment for the Humanities, the House Appropriations Committee is recommending an increase to $150 million in FY’86, which is approximately $10 million more than the FY’85 appropriation. On the historic preservation front, the recommended figure is $4.4 million for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and $20 million for the state historic preservation programs, a $1 million reduction for the state programs. The Administration had recommended zero funding for both of these historic preservation programs.
50th Anniversary of Historic Sites Act. Passage of the Historic Sites Act in 1935 marked a major turning point in the preservation of the cultural heritage of this nation. Most preservation programs today, including the National Register of Historic Places, trace their roots to the policies found in the 1935 act. A joint resolution has recently been introduced to recognize on its fiftieth anniversary the substantial contributions of this Act.
Executive Order on Classification. In August of 1982 President Reagan signed Executive Order 12356, which established new procedures for the government’s information security system. This Executive Order is of particular concern to historians because it widens the scope and lengthens the duration of classification and eliminates the “balancing test” of the Carter Order which required that “the public’s interest in access to government information” be considered when deciding on appropriate classifications. For the past two years the Information Security Oversight Office has published annual reports which summarize the status and accomplishments of the federal information security program. Analysis of these reports is difficult due to the introduction of new categories for “derivative” and “original” classification authorities and designations of partial and full disclosures. Nevertheless, it is clear that considerably less information is available under the new Executive Order.
In comparing the 1983 report released last year and the 1984 report which came out this spring, one of the most glaring statistics appeared under the section on mandatory review, a process that allows agencies and citizens to require an agency to review particular national security information for purposes of seeking its declassification. In 1983 76% of the documents reviewed were granted in full and 10% granted in part and 14% denied. In 1984 the number “granted in part” jumped to 75% with 23% granted in full and 2% denied. While these numbers do note that the “denied in full” category declined from 14% in 1983 to 2% in 1984, it is most disturbing that the “granted in part,” which could as easily be termed “denied in part” increased dramatically from 10% to 75%. The listing by agencies of cases considered under mandatory review showed a considerable increase for the Defense Department which in 1983 reviewed 781 cases but in 1984 considered 1,732. CIA also showed an increase with cases up from 186 to 274. But the State Department reviewed fewer cases in 1984, a decrease from 853 to 684.
The section of the Information Security Oversight Office report that deserves the special attention of historians is that on systematic review for declassification, a program which began in 1972. This program which reviews for the purposes of declassification records after they reach a specific age has been extremely important for historians. Although the prior Executive Order on Classification had a terminal date of twenty years for agencies to declassify documents, under Executive Order 12356, the National Archives is required to conduct a systematic review of classified documents in the Archives as they become 30 years old. The recent report points out that from 1980 to 1983, the number of pages reviewed under the systematic declassification program decreased from 90.3 million pages to 12.4 million pages. However, the report notes that in 1984 instead of a continued decrease, there was a slight increase to 12.8 million pages. The report states that this “may signal a reversal” of the downward spiral of the systematic declassification program.
