Documents / Official release
This Clinton Presidential Library file from the National Security Council holds a January 31, 1997 action memorandum from Samuel Berger and John Hilley to President Clinton, which recommends he sign letters to Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate President Albert Gore Jr. The letters are the required report to Congress under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. They cover Presidential Determination 96-54 of September 28, 1996, which exempted the Air Force operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada from waste disposal laws that would require disclosing classified information.
0471 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON January 31, 1997ACTION MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT 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 SAMUEL R. BERGE JOHN HILLEY Attachments Tab A Tab B 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. To report to the Congress pursuant to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). k.;3 C’.orU 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. ».* * •'* 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. 10 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.