107th Congress Report
SENATE
1st Session 107-60
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FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT, FISCAL YEARS 2002 AND 2003
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September 4, 2001.--Ordered to be printed
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Mr. Biden, from the Committee on Foreign Relations,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 1401]
[...]
Sec. 205. Foreign Relations historical series
This provision makes two amendments to increase reporting
to Congress on the implementation of Title IV of the State
Department Basic Authorities Act, relating to the Foreign
Relations of the United States Historical Series.
In 1991, Congress enacted Title IV out of concern for the
timeliness and historical accuracy of the series, and mandated
that it be a "thorough, accurate and reliable documentary
record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant
U.S. diplomatic activity." Title IV requires, among other
things, that the Secretary ensure that volumes in the series be
published not more than 30 years after the events recorded. A
decade after the law was enacted, the Department remains out of
compliance with this provision. The Department has yet to
publish 11 of the 34 volumes from the Johnson Administration,
which ended in 1969. The main reason for the shortfall, says
the Department, is the "time-consuming declassification
process." The Department reports that its historians access to
the records of intelligence agencies has been "mixed" and
that the Central Intelligence Agency has "fluctuated between
allowing our historians fairly wide access to its files and,
more recently, imposing some restrictions on research and
copying of documents." The Committee is concerned that the
Department remains out of compliance with Title IV, and urges
the Department and other Executive Branch agencies to devote
high-level and sustained attention to improving the access to
intelligence materials for the Department's historians.
[...]