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FILE SERIES

COMMITTEE ACTIVITY: COMMITTEE MANAGEMENT-Continued

CONTENTS AND ARRANGEMENT

RETENTION

DISPOSITION

COMMITTEE
FUNDS

Payroll/Salaries

Accounts

Vouchers

Travel

Includes all material pertaining to committee budget and the acquisition, use, and accounting of funds. The Disbursing Office publishes all vouchers in the semi-annual report of the Secretary. Backup materials are not kept by Disbursing, and therefore should be retained in the committee for proof of expenditures until the vouchers themselves are audited and destroyed. The vouchers are destroyed when they are twelve years old.

Records documenting payroll ex- Temporary penditures for each fiscal year including Disbursing Office monthly reports of annual salaries, breakdown of allowance and expenditures for current month and projections for the next two months.

Records documenting by calendar Temporary year expenditures for equipment,

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Destroy when no longer of administrative use, or when two congresses old.

Retain current and previous three calendar years in office. Destroy twelve years after the calendar year in which the account was paid.

Retain current and previous

three calendar years in office. Destroy twelve years after the calendar year in which the account was paid.

Retain current and previous

three years in office. Destroy twelve years after the calendar year in which the account was paid.

PERSONNEL

List of Current and

Former Staff
Members

Lists should include dates of em- Permanent ployment, titles, area of expertise, office telephone number, and room number. The list should be maintained by the chief clerk.

Retain until superseded, then transfer to the Senate's Archives.

FILE SERIES

COMMITTEE ACTIVITY: COMMITTEE MANAGEMENT-Continued

CONTENTS AND ARRANGEMENT

RETENTION

DISPOSITION

Staff Personnel
Folders

Individual folders filed alphabetical- Undetermined
ly including resumes, recommen-
dations, performance appraisals,
letters of resignation, financial
disclosure statements, job de-
scriptions, personnel actions,
and awards.

Fellows and Interns Records pertaining to the employ-
ment or detail of interns and fel-
lows.

Job Applications

Temporary

Applications for positions on the Temporary
committee staff.

Retain in office while current, then ask Archivist to appraise.

Destroy when no longer of administrative use.

Retain for current Congress. Destroy when two congresses old.

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CHAPTER IV:

THE MANAGEMENT AND DISPOSITION OF AUTOMATED RECORDS

INTRODUCTION

Automated records represent an increasingly important part of the materials created and maintained by Senate committees. These records, stored on magnetic media, require access to a computer for decoding, processing, and printing or viewing on a screen. Recently, most committees have evolved from use of one or two centralized systems to a combination of centralized and decentralized systems to process office work. As committees strive to reduce the amounts of paper that they must sort and file, they have expanded their use of automated systems to include storage of permanently valuable records on disks and magnetic tapes.

Because electronic records are stored in a form that is easy to modify and update, they sometimes are mistakenly considered to have only temporary value. But, just as committees routinely maintain and preserve permanently valuable paper documents, so they need to preserve permanently valuable documentation created and stored on electronic media.1 This chapter covers the management and disposition of automated records, and the documentation required to maintain them.

SENATE RULES AND AUTOMATED
RECORDS

Specific language in the two standing rules governing committee records has special implications for the management of automated records. Senate Rule XXVI(10)(a), provides that committee records "shall be the property of the Senate and all members of the committee and the Senate shall have access to such records" (emphasis added). Like other types of records, committee documents stored on magnetic media are the property of the Senate and, just like paper records, should not be destroyed. In fact, because such documents are easily modified and updated, they must be administered more carefully than paper documents.

1For discussion see Chapter I, Committee Records: A Definition.

In addition, electronic records must be and remain accessible. In order to remain accessible beyond the tenure of individual committee staff, electronic records must meet certain minimum filing and indexing standards. Documents should not be named idiosyncratically. Instead, the titles should contain certain basic information (such as date, subject, author, addressee, office of origin, and bill number) that is reflected in file listings produced by the system.

As with paper records, it is the responsibility of each committee to design and implement document naming, filing, and retention procedures that will facilitate the preservation of permanent electronic records and provide for future access. Specific management guidelines are included in the following sections of this chapter.

Senate Rule XI(2) states that "The Secretary of the Senate shall obtain at the close of each Congress all the noncurrent records of the Senate and of each Senate committee and transfer them to the National Archives for preservation . . . ." (emphasis added). Records stored on disks and diskettes cannot be transferred and preserved at the National Archives because their use may be dependent on the availability of particular hardware or software2 They must be transferred, preferably at regular intervals, to an archival storage medium (paper, microfilm, or 9-track tape) that meets certain data transportability specifications. Each committee must decide in which format its electronic records will be preserved and institute conversion procedures that will accomplish the task. Consultation with the Senate Archivist is recommended.

OBJECTIVES

Automation poses a threat to documenting the legislative and oversight work of committees. This is most likely to occur in offices that have not developed adequate records management procedures for

2NARA Bulletin 85-2, Attachment A, "Electronic Recordkeeping Guidelines," page 4.

3 See 36 CFR 1228.188, Appendix E.

retaining permanently valuable documents created on their decentralized systems. In a “paper-based" office, the tendency is to save and file. By contrast, where office automation is dominant, users must make a conscious decision to save text.

Committee staff, for example, traditionally prepare successive drafts of legislation or statements and analytical memos which they circulate in paper form for comment or review. For important legislation, these drafts are a primary source for documenting legislative intent. The new super-mini computers allow staff to create, store, and circulate documents via the office automation system. Because of the ease of altering text, there is a danger that permanently valuable drafts (i.e. "numbered," or "substantive" drafts) of bills, reports, and analytical memos will not be retained as part of the permanent record. Committee staff must continue to have access to earlier drafts. System use guidelines should ensure that they have such access.

If the new computers serve as typewriters, file cabinets, copiers, and shredders, then every user must become, to some extent, his or her own file clerk, records manager, archivist, and indexer. Ideally, each committee systems manager, with the help and concurrence of the chief counsel, minority counsel, chief clerk, and minority clerk, will devise procedures and written guidelines that include

instructions for maintaining an inventory of automated information systems

documentation to be saved with each automated record, such as the name of the file, file listings, the format and layout of the record, disposition codes, and user guides

disposition guidelines for automated records that identify permanently valuable information and provide for its transfer to an archival storage medium such as magnetic tape, microfilm, or paper requirements that departing staff review and transfer noncurrent permanently valuable electronic files from on-line to an archival storage medium

☐control procedures to ensure the security of information

instructions specifying the degree of protection to be afforded information stored electronically guidelines for deleting and reusing the magnetic media

requirements for the physical maintenance and security of magnetic media

CENTRALIZED SYSTEMS

Senate committees use a variety of centralized systems maintained by the Senate Computer Center. They include those designed for retrieval of legislative information, preparation of individualized responses to issue mail, casework tracking, creation

and storage of documents for publication or distribution, and file indexing. The Computer Center maintains centralized systems on magnetic tapes and disks and retains necessary documentation.

Committees should periodically review information stored on these systems for the purpose of identifying that which is permanently valuable and, with assistance from the Archivist, determine the most appropriate format for preservation. Permanent information may be preserved either on computer output microfilm (COM), printouts, or magnetic tape.

Generally, committee information stored on Senate centralized systems is retained in printout form and is interfiled with corresponding paper files. Examples include indexes to CMS correspondence files that are prepared on the Automated Indexing System (AIS), drafts of legislation, reports, and statements prepared on the Automated Textual Management System (ATMS), and various reports available from LEGIS. Many ATMS-produced documents are published.

Occasionally, however, as in the case of the indexes to the records of the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (Watergate Committee), material is retained on magnetic tape. Committees are encouraged to contact the Archivist (2243351) for assistance with surveying information on centralized systems and determining the most costefficient and convenient format for storing and preserving it. Given the reduced space and greater manipulability of magnetic media, an increasing amount of information will be retained in this format.

DISPOSITION GUIDELINES AND
SAMPLE REPORTS: CENTRALIZED
SYSTEMS

When using centralized systems, there are a variety of reports available for general information, for record-keeping, for management analysis, and for assessing production workloads of individuals within the office. Some of these reports are important because they provide access to certain information or certain files. Others are of transitory value and may be discarded after a specified time.

To assist chief clerks and systems managers in choosing reports pertinent to their office procedures and to help identify which reports are valuable for historical research, a summary of each system and its reports follows. Selected sample reports are included as exhibits at the end of this chapter. In cases where questions arise on the historical significance of specific files, committee staff should contact the Senate Historical Office (224-6900).

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