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1 1 (October 10, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goveqya0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Pnrsfo ing ti h egi stive da s ne 1914 Presidential Libraries and Museums October 10, 2024 At the conclusion of a presidency, former Presidents and their supporters may seek to construct facilities to commemorate their terms of office and house presidential materials. In 1955, Congress enacted the Presidential Libraries Act (PLA; P.L. 84-373) to create a system of privately erected and federally maintained libraries to house presidential materials and artifacts. Section 2112 of Title 44 of the U.S. Code provides the Archivist of the United States (the head of the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA) with the authority to accept-for and in the name of the United States-land, a facility, equipment, and gifts for the purpose of creating a presidential archival depository when the Archivist considers it to be in the public interest. The presidential library system consists of the both the collections of presidential materials and the physical depositories that hold the materials. Currently, the presidential library system comprises 15 presidential collections (and 13 depositories) documenting Presidents Herbert Hoover through Donald Trump. In FY2022, the presidential libraries welcomed 985,800 visitors. Construction on the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, IL, is underway. Plans for a depository for former President Trump's materials and for President Joe Biden's materials have not been announced. In the decades since the PLA's enactment, both Congress and NARA have reconsidered what would constitute a donation in the public interest and how presidential libraries should be administered. This In Focus provides information on the current presidential library system and the ownership and control of records held in presidential libraries, and it concludes with information on the funding for construction, building, and records maintenance within presidential libraries. Current Presidenti aLibrary System Presidential libraries are located throughout the United States, and according to NARA, Presidents have often acknowledged their origins by placing their Libraries in their hometowns. However, in some cases Presidents place their Libraries on or near a university campus. In the case of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, for example, the library is located on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. The NARA system currently includes the library depositories of 13 former Presidents: (1) Herbert Hoover (West Branch, IA); (2) Franklin D. Roosevelt (Hyde Park, NY); (3) Harry Truman (Independence, MO); (4) Dwight D. Eisenhower (Abilene, KS); (5) John F. Kennedy (Boston, MA); (6) Lyndon B. Johnson (Austin, TX); (7) Richard Nixon (Yorba Linda, CA); (8) Gerald Ford (Ann Arbor, MI); (9) Jimmy Carter (Atlanta, GA); (10) Ronald Reagan (Simi Valley, CA); (11) George H. W. Bush (College Station, TX); (12) Bill Clinton (Little Rock, AR); and (13) George W. Bush (Dallas, TX). It also includes the collections of former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Ownership of Presidentia Records Historically, presidential papers were the private property of the President, who would then donate the materials to institutions through deeds of gift for public display. Presidential records created on or after January 20, 1981, are subject to the requirements of the Presidential Records Act (PRA; 44 U.S.C. §§2201-2209) and are the property of the United States. Under the law, The United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records; and such records shall be administered in accordance with the provisions of this chapter(44 U.S.C. §2202). For more information on the PRA, see CRS Report R46129, The Presidential Records Act: An Overview, by Meghan M. Stuessy. Unlike historical presidencies, at the conclusion of a presidency under the PRA, the responsibility for the custody, control, preservation, and access to presidential records shifts to the Archivist (44 U.S.C. §2208). Additionally, statute requires the Archivist to make the former President's records publicly available as rapidly and as completely as possible. Because the United States owns all presidential records, a former President must seek the Archivist's permission to display presidential records in a different depository, such as a presidential library. In the case of former President Obama, NARA and the Obama Foundation have agreed upon a new model to provide access to Obama Administration records, and no original materials would be transferred to a new depository. Under this plan, the original physical and digital records are to remain in existing NARA facilities, and the Obama Presidential Center is to provide digital copies of the President's records. Accepting a Pres dential Library At the immediate conclusion of a presidency, the records are transferred to the care of NARA. While the PRA requires that presidential records materials be archived and maintained, neither the PRA nor the PLA requires the construction of a new and separate archival depository for a former President's records. The PLA provides the Archivist with a process to accept gifts of land, facilities, and equipment to create such a depository on behalf of the United States when the Archivist considers such acceptance to be in the public interest (44 U.S.C. §2112(a)). Consistent with the requirements of the PLA, the Archivist may then deposit the presidential records into a presidential library.

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