Title: Recognizing the necessity of preserving official and unofficial records of meetings between the President of the United States and foreign leaders, for the purposes of promoting transparency and the national security of the United States of America.
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics

Summary:
This concurrent resolution expresses the sense of Congress that the President must preserve (1) all records relating to his foreign meetings to ensure that his advisors, Congress, and the American people may have access to information regarding what transpired, especially in meetings with U.S. adversaries; and (2) notes taken during or documenting the content of presidential meetings with foreign leaders.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 25 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 25

Recognizing the necessity of preserving official and unofficial records 
  of meetings between the President of the United States and foreign 
 leaders, for the purposes of promoting transparency and the national 
               security of the United States of America.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 14, 2019

  Mr. Rouda submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
           referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Recognizing the necessity of preserving official and unofficial records 
  of meetings between the President of the United States and foreign 
 leaders, for the purposes of promoting transparency and the national 
               security of the United States of America.

Whereas chapter 22 of title 44, United States Code (commonly known as the 
        Presidential Records Act of 1978), states that the records of the 
        President and the President's staff belong to the American people, not 
        the President;
Whereas the Presidential Records Act of 1978 requires the President to document 
        official activities and preserve all documentary materials produced or 
        received by the President, the President's staff, or units or 
        individuals in the Executive Office of the President;
Whereas the Act defines the term ``documentary material'' as ``all books, 
        correspondence, memoranda, documents, papers, pamphlets, works of art, 
        models, pictures, photographs, plats, maps, films, and motion pictures, 
        including, but not limited to, audio and visual records, or other 
        electronic or mechanical recordations, whether in analog, digital, or 
        any other form'';
Whereas the Act was passed in response to President Nixon's claim that he owned 
        the tape recordings in his office, an assertion rejected by the Supreme 
        Court; the Act consequently states that all files of the President must 
        be preserved;
Whereas, according to numerous reports, President Trump has torn up or otherwise 
        destroyed records;
Whereas President Trump reportedly seized the notes of an interpreter following 
        a 2017 meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia; and
Whereas, consequently, senior Administration officials and Congress do not have 
        knowledge of what President Trump told Mr. Putin: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the President must preserve all records relating to the 
        foreign meetings of the President in order to ensure that the 
        advisors of the President, Congress, and the American people 
        may have access to information regarding what transpired in 
        those meetings, especially in meetings with adversaries of the 
        United States; and
            (2) the term ``documentary material'' under the 
        Presidential Records Act of 1978 includes notes taken during or 
        documenting the content of presidential meetings with foreign 
        leaders.
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