WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF RECORDS MANAGEMENT

Subject File, 1981-1989

 

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (FE)

 

DESCRIPTION OF FILE CODES

 

File Code               Description

FE                         Federal Government (2 folders; Box 1)

This primary subject category contains material relating to reduction or moratoriums of Federal regulations; wasteful government spending; support for President Reagan’s call for a “leaner” federal government; a request for government statistics; a request to address Americans as “the People of the United States”; and comments on H.R. 6225, Ratification of Reorganization Plans.

 

FE001                    Ceremonials – Protocol (.1 l.ft.; Box 1)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to origins of the “21-gun” salute and the use of yellow ribbons; first use of “First Lady;” requests for protocol procedures; protocol handbook sent to senior staff and agencies; oath of office; requests for public bill signing ceremonies and the order of precedence for US officials.

 

FE001-01               Deaths - Funerals (3 folders; Box 1)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to condolences and a proclamation on the death of General Omar Bradley; requests for Reagan to attend funerals for Anwar Sadat, Constantin Chernenko and a Vietnam War MIA pilot; a protest against the US delegation to Leonid Brezhnev’s funeral; US delegations for the funeral of Cardinal Medeiros and Princess Grace of Monaco; funeral arrangements for various US citizens including the crew of the Challenger; and an apology for Bishop McGann’s political remarks at the funeral of William Casey.

 

FE001-02               Wreath-Laying (.2 l.ft.; Box 1)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to designation of Presidential representatives for wreath-laying ceremonies on the annual birthdays of former Presidents; arrangements for 93-year old Hamilton Fish to accompany the President for the wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Veteran’s Day, 1981; a list of Heads of State who laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery; designating the World War II Attu Island ceremony as Presidential; attempts to have the White House send a presidential wreath to the annual honoring of Robert E. Lee’s birthday; and the ongoing debate regarding White House/Presidential participation in the Confederate War Memorial ceremony.

 

FE002                    Declaration of Independence - Constitution (.5 l.ft.; Box 2-3)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to the Bicentennial of the Constitution in 1987. Material covers the planning process for the event; incorporating Republican themes into the event; state and local resolutions; requests for Presidential messages, letters and proclamations on the event; an event list for the 1987 celebrations; programs and information from various agencies and Commissions on planned Bicentennial events; creating a “We the People” museum and Reagan’s participation in Citizenship Day, September 16, 1987.  The category also contains material relating to opinions on a Constitutional Convention; attempts to get a balanced budget amendment; use of the fifth amendment especially in relation to Iran-Contra testimony; complaints about the illegality of the 16th amendment; various questions on constitutionality of government practices; a manuscript celebrating American political achievements; and calls for the repeal of the 22nd amendment.

 

FE002-01               Presidential Powers – Succession – Term of Office (1.4 l.ft.; Box 3-7)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to defining Reagan administration interpretation of executive privilege; executive privilege claims for certain executive branch and White House documents regarding the Congressional investigations of the Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and Scalia and Rehnquist documents from their time at the Department of Justice; executive privilege issues within the transition papers and regarding the President’s official biographer Edmund Morris; the order of succession, FEMA successor cards; preparation for transfer of power during President Reagan’s surgeries; the 25th amendment; possible constitutional basis for line-item veto; support of the line-item veto amendments; the constitutionality of the 1973 War Powers Act; reports due under the War Powers Act; administration testimony on the War Powers Act and proposed amendments to the Act; application of the War Powers Act to specific military acts; support for repealing the 22nd amendment; support for a six-year single Presidential term and other specific presidential powers for pardoning, and appropriating without a budget.

 

                             Additional material on powers and term of office can be found in FE002 regarding repealing the 22nd amendment.

 

FE003                    Executive Orders (.7 l.ft.; Box 7-8)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to the technical processes of creating Executive Orders and maintenance of their relevance; weekly reports on the status of Executive Orders covering mostly 1982, 1983 and 1987; an OMB review of Executive Orders in 1985 and the resulting “clean-up” of out-of-date Executive Orders; comments from public citizens on support or protest against specific Executive Orders; request for copies of specific Executive Orders; specific Executive Orders on Federalism, the Generalized System of Preferences, delegations of authority for certain practices and freezing Haitian and Duvalier funds held in the United States, and lists and books of current Executive Orders.

 

FE004                    Heraldry (2.5 l.ft.; Box 8-15)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to the Great Seal of the United States, the President’s Seal, the Vice-President’s Seal and the United States flag. Material covers proclamations for lowering the flag to half-mast for particular events; regulations for usage and display of the American flag; placing the Great American Flag on the ground; flying flags over the Capitol or White House and the President’s participation and other US localities participation in the “Pause for the Pledge” (a nation-wide saying of the Pledge of Allegiance). Material also covers multiple requests for the use of the Great Seal of the United States and the President’ Seal; rules and regulations for usage of either seal; cease and desist letters to entities misusing the seals; a redesign plan for the President’s Seal; a list of approved and denied requests for use of the seals; requests to cut the die for the “back side” of the Great Seal and ideas for seals for other government entities.

 

                             There is additional material regarding the United States and President’s flag within FE006 (National Emblems).

                            

FE005                    Management Improvement Program (1.2 l.ft.; Box 15-18)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to the creation and administration of management reform within the federal government. A great deal of the material is focused on Reform ’88, a long-term program to improve the management process government wide; develop efficient and compatible administrative systems for the entire Federal Government; and improve total resource management. Other material covers management recommendations from public citizens and other branches of government; appointing Edwin Meese III as the head of the management reform effort; legislative support and obstruction of management reform; the editing and publication of the Management of the United States Government; integrating suggestions from the President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (the Grace Commission); Executive Orders 12552 and 12637 on Productivity Improvement Program in the Federal Government and revising and presenting management reform in the federal government for the second administration.

 

FE006                    National Emblems (.2 l.ft.; Box 18-19)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to requests by citizens to sing the National Anthem at presidential events; adjustments to the way the “Star Spangled Banner” is sung; suggestions for a new anthem; S.J.R. 159 designating the rose as the National Floral Emblem of the United States; signing ceremony for S.J.R. 159; support for the rose as the floral emblem; support for other flowers as the national floral emblem; S.860 designating “The Stars and Stripes Forever” as the National March of the United States and various issues on proper flag etiquette.

 

FE007                    National Emergency (.1 l.ft.; Box 19)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to the declaration of a national energy emergency; the Emergency Broadcast System; the national emergency declared to deal with Iran; the Emergency Mobilization Preparedness Board; a proposed national emergency response structure, and an emergency preparedness study of the White House emergency response system.  In addition there is one case file from the Middletown, New Jersey High School political science class requesting information on who would lead the country if a national emergency occurred just before a new president was inaugurated.

 

FE008                    Libraries – Museums, Presidential (.2 l.ft.; Box 19-20)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to Congressional efforts to change the way Presidential Libraries are funded and operated; H.R. 1349, the Presidential Library Act of 1986, requiring a 20 per cent cost endowment for all future Libraries; a review of all established Libraries: their locations, photos, and operating procedures; journal articles about the Presidential Library systems; Reagan’s trip to the Ford Library dedication; Reagan’s personal meeting with John Kennedy, Jr. and Caroline Kennedy regarding requests for Reagan’s assistance in establishing an endowment for the Kennedy Library; and the first release of Nixon presidential records and the executive privilege issues with these papers and the release.

 

FE008-01               Library, Incumbent President (.9 l.ft.; Box 20-22)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to the establishment of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation; requests to be the site for the Library; the withdrawal of the Library’s original site at Stanford University/Hoover Institute; background on Presidential libraries; procedures for handling presidential records and gifts; oral history interviews for the Library; placement of the Reagan-Bush campaign and transition materials at the Hoover Institute; fundraising issues for the Library/Foundation and President Reagan’s involvement; solicitation and disposition of cabinet member papers; disposal of bulk mail at the White House; ceremonial documents for the 1988 groundbreaking ceremony and proposed processing regulations for the President records under the Presidential Records Act.

 

 

FE009                    Proclamations (.4 l.ft.; Box 22-23)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to the processing of proclamations including editing, registering with the Executive Clerk and returning the proclamations to Congress; attempts to limit the number of proclamations issued each year; requests for copies of ceremonial proclamations; requests for presidential proclamations on behalf of various groups and issues; gratitude letters regarding certain proclamations and signing ceremonies.

 

This secondary subject category also included approximately 150 ceremonial proclamations mostly from 1988.  These were transferred to the Office of Correspondence/Special Presidential Messages series as were all previous ceremonial proclamations from this category.

 

This secondary subject category also contains material that was misfiled but the Library has chosen to leave the material in this category. This is material relating to proclamations by local governments or groups sent to the White House on various topics.  In addition, some 1988 requests for Presidential messages which the White House responded to using proclamations are also misfiled in this category.

 

FE010                    Records and Archives (1.4 l.ft.; Box 23-27)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to the implementation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978 (PRA). Material includes a review of new procedures for White House Staff members, review of perceived problems in the PRA, how to treat personal and/or public records, regulations from the National Archives (NARA) and the Counsel’s office for applying PRA processing to Presidential records, and a definition of all types of material covered by the PRA. This subject category also contains material relating to the Paperwork Reduction Act and the legal decisions regarding its applicability to already established regulations and the Office of Management and Budget’s role in enforcing the Paperwork Reduction Act; reports to Congress on the reduction of paperwork; annual paperwork budget of the US; public complaints about US government forms; requests for US publications; transfer of 1980 campaign and transition material to the Hoover Institute; disposal and sampling of bulk presidential mail; amendments and additions to the Freedom of Information Act; NARA rules and regulations for retaining federal records; dealing with new media; computer security; requests to retain certain Presidential records and the transfer of the National Security Council’s presidential records.  This category does contain a small but significant amount of requests for access to certain records.  The Library has chosen not to transfer this material to FE010-01 (Access to Records).

 

FE010-01               Access to Records (10.2 l.ft.; Box 27-54)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and possible revisions and amendments, particularly for intelligence gathering units; procedures for agencies referring FOIA requested materials to the White House; instructions from the Department of Justice to agencies regarding application of FOIA restrictions; procedures, review and release of Nixon Presidential materials in 1985, 1986 and 1988; implementation of the Presidential Records Act; issuance of the President’s Executive Order in January 1989 on application of regulations for the Presidential Records Act; notices to White House staff members when their financial disclosure forms have been requested; President George H.W. Bush transition team access to White House records; Congressional requests for documents; Department of Justice opinions on refusing documents to Congress; review of “Presidential” records status for various Executive Office of the Presisdent units; creation of the National Security Archives; access agreements for Edmund Morris, the President’s biographer; multiple requests from Independent Counsel’s offices for documents regarding investigations of Michael Deaver, Edwin Meese, Lyn Nofziger and the Iran-Contra Affair; and multiple FOIA/Privacy Act requests from individuals, groups, and organizations on wide-ranging topics.