Bush Limits Public Access to Presidents' Records

President Bush’s order yesterday granting former presidents greater authority to withhold records requested by historians and other researchers is causing discontent among academics, who say the government is illegitimately blocking access to valuable resources.

The order is a modification of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which requires disclosure of particularly sensitive records 12 years after presidents have left office.

Bush and White House officials say these measures are being put in place to ensure that no information will be released which could lead to a breach in national security.

But some historians and scholars see the order as a smokescreen for the Bush administration’s desire to conceal potentially embarrassing records from past administrations.

The records, scholars claim, contain no information that would assist a terrorist attack.

Some historians point out that there are strict exemptions that keep important information protected from the public, and that these restrictions are sufficient to protect sensitive information without Bush’s new order.

“There are good reasons to worry about what Bush is doing. He was trying to restrict the release of papers before Sept. 11,” said KSG assistant professor Barry C. Burden.

The papers Burden refers to are documents from former President Ronald Reagan’s administration.

The release of some 68,000 records from Reagan’s administration has been delayed three times, and Thursday’s order may suspend release for an additional

90 days.

“Maybe the interest of national security was being invoked in Bush’s attempts to withhold documents prior to Sept. 11, but we don’t know for sure,” Burden said. “Sept. 11 has made [Bush’s] order easier to implement. Now it looks less like the actions of a Republican trying to protect another Republican.”

There is concern over the implications of withholding presidential documentation. Assistant Professor of Government Bear F. Braumoeller said withholding information may not always be in the best interest of the public.

“The Presidential Records Act has to balance a legitimate governmental need for secrecy against the public’s legitimate right to know what its government is doing,” he said.

Braumoeller said government officials may use the order as an additional means to block necessary public exposure of government secrets.

“[The order] in fact pushes the balance substantially toward the government’s side by creating serious impediments to public access. No academic could be happy about it—that’s predictable.”

Bruce Craig, director of the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that he anticipates a lawsuit challenging the order in the near future.

In anticipation of such a challenge, White House officials have said that scholars would be allowed to sue if they believe specific documents have been withheld without good cause.