October 3, 1974
Page 33876
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President. I rise in support of S. 4016 and the companion resolutions Senate Resolution 399 and Senate Joint Resolution 240. I wish to commend the work of the majority leader, the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Government Operations, the senior Senator from New York and the Senator from Wisconsin for their able and conscientious efforts to bring forward this important legislation.
During the past 2 years we have heard first one call and then another to bring an end to Watergate – to terminate this national nightmare and relegate it to the past. All too frequently, however, the pleas for ending Watergate were accompanied by efforts to prevent either the judicial system or the public from knowing what really happened.
Those demands for an end to Watergate are reminiscent of efforts to hide the family skeletons simply by closing and locking the closet door. However, Watergate will not die if the facts are buried first. It will continue to be a national issue until we bring to a fair and orderly conclusion the related criminal proceedings in the courts and are able to assure the public that all of the relevant facts have been made known to them. The momentum of this national tragedy has been sustained in the past by the repeated disclosure of new elements or facts with the passing of each day or week. More than 2 years after the initial Watergate burglary, when many people
believed that most of the facts had finally emerged, it was the previously undisclosed release of a June 23 tape recorded conversation which started the final chain reaction that led to our Nation's first Presidential resignation.
The events surrounding that resignation comprise a sad, but nevertheless, vital segment of our Nation's history. Our generation and future generations will profit from that experience. But judgment cannot be rendered without all the facts at hand.
The agreement signed on September 6 by former President Nixon and General Services Administrator Sampson, would frustrate that objective. Under its provision, Mr. Nixon is given control over the tape recordings and is permitted to destroy any of them after September 1, 1979.
In addition the agreement provides that all the tapes will be destroyed upon Mr. Nixon's death or on September 1, 1984, whichever comes first.
The uncertainty of human life dictates the importance of immediate action by the Congress to assure access to the tape recordings and other materials for present and future judicial proceedings.
Without attempting to decide the more complex question of who should have title in the presidential documents, this legislation addresses itself to the immediate problem of court access to the Nixon Presidential tapes and materials as well as to the need to provide the public with the full truth at the earliest possible date of abuses of Government in power identified by the term "Watergate."
The authors of the measure before us have given careful attention to the many problems associated with the handling of the Presidential materials in question. In addition to making them available to appropriate judicial proceedings, they have recognized the need to guard against the disclosure of national security information involved and the need to protect every individual's right to a fair trial. In order to assure that appropriate procedures are adopted for access to these materials, GSA is directed to promulgate regulations within 90 days of the effective date of this act. Congress could then examine those regulations to see if they meet the purposes and goals of this legislation.
The legislation before us is not an effort to deprive Mr. Nixon of his property. Rather it is designed to recognize both Mr. Nixon's need for access to these Presidential tape recordings and materials as well as the public need for protecting these materials and assuring their availabilty to judicial proceedings and historical study.
In order to avoid any further delay or legal proceedings, a procedure is wisely provided for review of any challenge to this act by a three-judge Federal court.
This is a twilight area defined more by procedure than by the law. Without attempting to decide the question whether title and custody of future records of Presidential actions should be placed in the American people, this legislation meets an immediate need for assuring the immediate safety and appropriate use of the Nixon Presidential tapes and materials.
Again, I commend the efforts of the Senators who have worked on this legislation and hope that it will receive the approval of the Congress.