EXHIBIT 1-1 SENATE LEGAL COUNSEL MEMO-Continued the Archives shall remain nonpublic for twenty years after their creation, or, in the case The only exception to the requirement that committees preserve documents MANAGEMENT CHECKLIST Are all majority and minority staff periodically briefed about their recordkeeping responsibilities under Senate Rules XI and XXVI 10(a)? Do they understand that committee records may not be taken away from the Senate? (18 U.S.C. §§ 641, 2071) Do the chief clerk and minority clerk oversee records management throughout the committee? Is this responsibility part of their job descriptions? Has your office integrated records management with information and systems management? Do the chief clerk and minority clerk participate in planning for major modifications to existing systems and in migrating information to new systems? Do subcommittee records clerks monitor recordkeeping practices in their respective offices? Does each staff member receive a copy of the pamphlet Senate Records: Guidelines For Committee Staff? Does each staff member receive guidance on records disposition procedures and transfer of material to the archives? Is access to all records, including paper, audiovisual, and electronic, limited to authorized staff? Has the office established procedures for storing security-classified, Privacy Act and other restricted records? Is there a complete set of mark-up or business meeting transcripts? Are these transferred to the archives at the end of each Congress? Are staff maintaining complete legislative files documenting their work on legislation? Are these files being transferred to the archives when they become noncurrent? Are investigative files carefully maintained and adequately indexed? Are treaty files and related background information being carefully maintained? Are the files complete? Are nominations files carefully maintained? Are they transferred to the archives at the end of each Congress? Are official communications received by the committee being carefully filed? Are they complete? Is substantive information on computers, including e-mail, being saved? CHAPTER II: FUNCTIONAL RECORDKEEPING This chapter presents an overview of committee activities together with the kinds of records required to accomplish them. Its purpose is to provide administrative staff with a way to rationalize management of information resources so that the committee's work is fully documented. Effective management will assist committees with meeting their recordkeeping responsibilities assigned by Senate Rules XI and XXVI 10(a). Basic committee activities are described and recommendations are given for maintaining the resulting textual and electronic documentation. Chief clerks, minority clerks, and designated helpers in each subcommittee office can use the accompanying charts to determine what files series to create in their respective offices. Setting up office files is a collaborative task. All staff need to know what documents are important to retain, especially electronic documents and substantive e-mail. They should have a basic understanding of what files exist and what should go into them. They should have a clear understanding of how to group electronic information into appropriate "folders". Remember, many committee documents have longterm research value. They are expensive to acquire, compile, and analyze. Maintaining them in carefully designated file series contributes immensely towards their continued usefulness. COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION While staff organization and specific duties vary among committees, there are two general organizational models (centralized and decentralized) under which most committees can be grouped. Centralized Staff Committees organized in this manner will be able to create "centralized" files, especially for legislation and oversight issues. Decentralized Staff-Decentrally organized committees have some staff who work for the full committee, and other staff who are assigned to subcommittees. In these instances, full documentation of an issue may be spread throughout several different offices and file series. Committee staff should consider the committee organizational scheme when implementing records maintenance and disposition in order to be certain that all records documenting an issue are included in the archives. Specifically, the chief clerk should: Identify all offices that are maintaining records Identify individual staff who are maintaining files Designate individuals within each unit to guide the preservation of committee records Committee hearing and business meeting transcripts, "public" nominations files, and official communications are best retained by the full committee. Depending on how "decentralized" the committee is, legislative and oversight files will be maintained at the full committee and within each subcommittee. With decentralized staffing, each subcommittee is responsible for implementing records disposition. Subcommittee records managers should coordinate with the full committee to minimize duplication of recordkeeping. For example, the full committee may be designated as the office of record for all full committee hearing and business meeting transcripts, thus freeing the subcommittees from maintaining extensive duplicate files in the archives. MAJORITY AND MINORITY STAFF Senate Resolution 4, (95th Congress, adopted February 4, 1977) and Senate Standing Rule XXVII.3 specify that committee staffs "should reflect the relative number of majority and minority members of the committees." A majority of the minority members of any committee may, by resolution, request that at least one-third of all personnel funds of the committee be allocated to the minority members. Senate Rule XXVII.3 states that a majority of the minority members on a committee may request, by resolution, proportionate space, equipment, and facilities. Accordingly, all committees, except the Select Committee on Ethics which is nonpartisan, have established separate majority and minority offices. As a result, most majority and minority committee staff files are separately maintained. Because of this, it is especially important for the majority and minority chief counsels and administrative clerks to devise procedures that ensure the preservation of all committee files. Preserving only the majority's files would violate Senate Rule XXVI.10(a) which stipulates that "all committee . . . records . . . shall be the property of the Senate . . ." Moreover, preserving only majority files would be preserving only one side of a committee's historical records. Recommendations for managing the disposition of majority and minority records include: • Majority and minority administrative clerks should direct records retention and disposition activities within their respective offices. • They should brief their staffs on records retention requirements specified in Senate rules and statute. Staff should be reminded again when they resign from the committee. • The majority and minority administrative clerks may process their transfers of noncurrent records directly through the Senate archivist. • All clerks should retain copies of their respective transfer documents and indexes. Copies of all transfer documents are retained by the Senate archivist for Senate permanent files. COMMITTEE GOALS AND The following discussion is intended to help clarify which records are most important for committees to retain. It should provide a framework for chief clerks and administrative clerks to implement records management routines tailored to each committee's traditional style and needs. Reviewing Legislation. Committee staff devote a major portion of their time to studying, analyzing, and reporting legislation that is referred to the committee for consideration. The arrangement and filing of records associated with this activity is of prime importance. Legislative or "bill" files are set up to hold the relevant documents. Committee bill files should fully document staff review, research and analyses. They are among the most important files that committees create. Electronic files that relate to work on legislation, including substantive e-mail, should be grouped together by the subject of the legislation in preparation for transfer to the archives. Electronic files might include substantive drafts of legislation and reports, drafts of speeches and statements, and analytical memos. Conference committee working papers and briefing materials should be incorporated into the legislative files. Conducting Oversight/Investigations. Senate Rule XXVI authorizes committees to review and study, on a continuing basis, the application, administration, and execution of those laws, or parts of laws, the subject matter of which is within the legislative jurisdiction of that committee. Under this rule, committees may analyze, appraise, and evaluate issues and programs themselves, or they may require the government agency to do so and report to the Senate. Committee oversight can be either legislative or investigative. The former involves examination of government programs for the purpose of deciding whether new legislation is needed. The latter is more exploratory with a view toward uncovering incompetence and wrongdoing in the administration of public policy. Staff involved in legislative oversight accumulate quantities of correspondence with agency officials and reports on agency programs. A general subject file usually is the most convenient way to file this type of information. Related electronic records are best grouped by subdirectory or "folder" according to the program or issue. Records pertaining to investigatory oversight are especially difficult to manage as they may be voluminous and come from a wide array of sources. Examples include: primary research data, subpoenaed documents, depositions, reports from outside sources, hearing transcripts, staff evaluations and summaries, drafts of committee reports and recommendations for proposed solutions. For large, complex investigations, expert management is necessary to prevent the valuable records from becoming buried amidst quantities of material not relevant to the investigation. It also is vital to maintain good indexes so that the material can be readily retrieved when needed by staff. Considering Nominations and Treaties. Consideration of presidential nominations and treaties are important committee activities resulting in the collection of significant amounts of documentation that must be carefully filed, preserved, and transferred to the archives. Receiving Official Communications. Committees receive presidential messages, petitions and memorials, and executive communications pertaining to their respective areas of jurisdiction. This information should be filed carefully and accurately and transferred to the archives. During the course of a single day, all of these various activities proceed apace and it is vital that chief clerks and records managers establish a good system for information routing and filing. For filing purposes, all staff need to be able to recognize significant information as it is created or received. Staff should be encouraged to adopt good recordkeeping practices so that all appropriate documentation may be retained. EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT: BASIC 1) Periodically remind staff about Senate Rules XI and XVI(10) governing the ownership and disposition of committee records. Point out their responsibility for good records practices. 2) Appoint one individual in each office (full committee and subcommittees, majority and minority) to be responsible for records management and encourage them to review this handbook. |