Documents / Official release
This Clinton Presidential Library file holds National Security Council tracking sheets and a January 30, 1997 memorandum from the Deputy Secretary of Defense to President Clinton. The memo recommends that the President report to Congress, under section 6001(a) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the exemption he granted in Presidential Determination 96-54 of September 1996. That determination exempts the Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, from waste laws that could require disclosure of classified information. Draft letters to Speaker Gingrich and Vice President Gore and the Federal Register notice are attached.
Dear Mr. President: Sincerely, Presidential Determination No. 96-54 exempted the United States 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. 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, 1996,1 issued Presidential Determination 96-54 (copy attached) and thereby exercised the authority to grant certain exemptions under section 6001(a) of the Act. 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), appeal pending (9th Cir. Nos. 96-15535 and 96-15537). 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. The Honorable Albert Gore, Jr. President U. S. Senate Washington, D. C. 20510
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Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 9 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.