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.
THE WHITE HOUSE WAS HIN GTON Dear Mr. Speaker: Sincerely, Presidential Determination No. 96-54 exempted the U.S. Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada from any Federal, State, interstate or local hazardous or solid waste laws that might require the disclosure of classified information concerning that operating location to unauthorized persons. Information concerning activities at the operating location near Groom Lake has been properly determined to be classified, and its disclosure would be harmful to national security. Continued protection of this information is, therefore, in the paramount interest of the United States. The Determination was not intended to imply that in the absence of a Presidential exemption RCRA or any other provision of law permits or requires the disclosure of classified information to unauthorized persons, but rather to eliminate any potential uncertainty arising from a decision in pending litigation, Kasza v. Browner (D. Nev. CV-S-94-795-PMP). The Determination also was not intended to limit the applicability or enforcement of any requirement of law applicable to the Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake except those provisions, if any, that would require the disclosure of classified information. Consistent with Section 6001 (a) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (the "Act"), as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 6961(a), notification is hereby given that on September 28, 1996, I issued Presidential Determination 96-54 (copy attached) and thereby exercised the authority to grant certain exemptions under section 6001(a) of the Act. The Honorable Newt Gingrich Speaker of the House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515
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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.