Records Act

Records Act of 1789[1]
Long title	An Act to provide for the safe-keeping of the Acts, Records and Seal of the United States, and for other purposes
Enacted by	the 1st United States Congress
Citations
Statutes at Large	1 Stat. 68 (1789)
Legislative history
	Introduced in the House as an Act to provide for the safe-keeping of the Acts, Records and Seal of the United States, and for other purposes by Theodore Sedgwick (MA) on July 31, 1789; Passed the House on August 27, 1789 ; Passed the Senate on September 7, 1789 with amendment; House agreed to Senate amendment on September 8, 1789 (); Signed into law by President George Washington on September 15, 1789;

The Records Act, also known as an Act to provide for the safe-keeping of the Acts, Records and Seal of the United States, and for other purposes, was the fourteenth law passed by the United States Congress.

The first section of the bill renamed the Department of Foreign Affairs to the Department of State. The next section charged the Secretary of State with receiving legislation from the president for safekeeping. Five subsequent provisions governed the creation, custody and use of the Seal of the United States.

The act also directed the Secretary of State to ensure that every bill enacted or vetoed was published in at least three newspapers, making it the nation's first freedom of information law, though its provisions would later be used to justify the withholding of information from the public.[2]

In 1875, the law was incorporated into 5 U.S.C. section 301, the Housekeeping Statute.[3]

References

Grant de Pauw, Linda (1986). Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791: House of Representatives Journal. The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 1753–1766. ISBN 978-0801818196.
Relyea, Harold (2005), Access to Government Information in the United States (PDF), Washington, D.C.: United States Congress, p. 2, retrieved 2013-02-21
Mayer, Kenneth R. (2002). With the Stroke of a Pen: Executive Orders and Presidential Power. Princeton University Press. p. 155. ISBN 9780691094991.

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[1] Grant de Pauw, Linda (1986). Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791: House of Representatives Journal. The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 1753–1766. ISBN 978-0801818196.

[2] Relyea, Harold (2005), Access to Government Information in the United States (PDF), Washington, D.C.: United States Congress, p. 2, retrieved 2013-02-21

[Mayer-3] Mayer, Kenneth R. (2002). With the Stroke of a Pen: Executive Orders and Presidential Power. Princeton University Press. p. 155. ISBN 9780691094991.

Records Act

See also

References