Documents / Official release
This Clinton Presidential Library file contains White House and National Security Council records from January 1997. They cover the President's annual report to Congress under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act about Presidential Determination 96-54 of September 28, 1996. That determination exempted the Air Force operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, from waste disposal laws that would require disclosure of classified information, in connection with the Kasza v. Browner and Frost v. Perry litigation. The file includes the letters to Speaker Gingrich and Vice President Gore.
0471 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON January 31, 1997ACTION MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT > e THROUGH: THE EXECUTIVE CLERK FROM: SUBJECT: Purpose Background RECOMMENDATION That you sign the attached letters. Letter to Speaker of the House Letter to President of the Senate Report to Congress on the Presidential Exemption Concerning the Operating Location Near Groom Lake Attachments Tab A Tab B t:;dForW\/3l/H7 ----- L— To report to the Congress pursuant to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). cc: Vice President Chief of Staff This report has been coordinated with CEQ as well as the Departments of Defense and Justice and the EPA. Under RCRA, you are required to report each January to the Congress all exemptions granted during the previous year and the reasons for doing so. In addition to noting that the exemption was necessary to protect national security (without providing details) the report indicates that the exemption was not intended to limit the applicability or enforcement of any requirement of law applicable to the operating location except those provisions, if any, that would require disclosure of classified information. SAMUEL R. BERGE: JOHN HILLEY On September 28, you exempted the Air Force operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, (the operating location) "from any Federal, State, interstate or local provision respecting control and abatement of solid waste or hazardous waste disposal that would require the disclosure of classified information" to unauthorized persons. You first granted such an exemption in 1995 in the context of litigation over the Government's compliance with RCRA at the location.
Not linked to a story yet.
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 12 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.