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.
THE WHITE HOUSE WASH INGTON Dear Mr. Speaker: Sincerely, 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. 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 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. 10 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.