Today\u2019s post on the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act (PRMPA<\/em>) comes from Laurel Gray, a processing intern with the Textual Division at the National Archives in Washington, DC.<\/em> It is the second of a four-part\u00a0series on\u00a0the archival ramifications of the Watergate scandal<\/em>.<\/p>\n When President Richard Nixon resigned<\/a> in August 1974, he signed an agreement with the General Services Administration known as the Nixon-Sampson Agreement<\/a>. Simply put, the agreement allowed Nixon to maintain custody over his Presidential materials after leaving office. This included any political documents, photographs, and taped conversations from his time as President. It also stated that after a period of 10 years or in the event of Nixon\u2019s death\u2014whichever came first\u2014these taped conversations would be destroyed.<\/p>\n This stipulation in particular sparked outrage across political, historical, and archival communities. In a congressional hearing, Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) voiced his concerns about the Nixon-Sampson Agreement, stating, \u201cIf Mr. Nixon died tomorrow, those tapes . . . are to be destroyed immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n Senator Gaylord Nelson\u2019s solution: The Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act (PRMPA).<\/p>\n What was the PRMPA?<\/strong><\/p>\n On September 18, 1974, Senator Nelson introduced the PRMPA in the Senate. The bill undercut the Nixon-Sampson Agreement by putting Nixon\u2019s Presidential materials in the custody of the National Archives. It also stipulated that Nixon\u2019s materials would be immediately available for use in judicial proceedings and eventually available to the public. <\/p>\n The House and the Senate both passed the PRMPA, and on December 19, President Gerald Ford signed the bill into law. The PRMPA made history as the first legislation to regulate the ownership of Presidential materials. Unfortunately, Richard Nixon was not happy about this legislative solution.<\/p>\n The aftermath of the PRMPA<\/strong><\/p>\n Just one day after the PRMPA was signed into law, Nixon filed an action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge the new legislation. He claimed that the PRMPA was a bill of attainder, an unjust punishment imposed on him without a trial.<\/p>\n The District Court sided against Nixon, claiming that his complaints were \u201cwithout merit,\u201d and he was forced to take his fight elsewhere. He set his sights on the highest court in the land, and in 1976 the Supreme Court granted Nixon a hearing.<\/p>\n In Nixon<\/a><\/em> v. <\/a>Administrator of General Services<\/a><\/em>, the outcome was basically the same as before. With a decision of 7-2, the Supreme Court voted to uphold the District Court\u2019s original ruling, citing that Nixon was \u201ca legitimate class of one\u201d with no strong legal precedent to support his case. Nixon<\/em> v. Administrator<\/em> represented more than a personal loss for Nixon. It marked a significant moment that would change the course of Presidential historical preservation.<\/p>\n The PRMPA, with the support of the ruling in Nixon<\/em> v. Administrator<\/em>, opened the door for the regulation of Presidential materials. Before the PRMPA, no laws existed to control what happened to a President\u2019s documents after he left office. The closest thing to regulation came in 1941, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the first Presidential Library<\/a>. However, creating a Presidential Library was voluntary, not mandatory. Up until 1974, the only principles guiding the preservation of Presidential materials were trust and tradition. After Nixon broke that trust, Congress decided that things needed to change. That\u2019s where the PRMPA comes in.<\/p>\n The PRMPA applied exclusively to Nixon, but it included a condition that went beyond the former President. The PRMPA called for the establishment of the National Study Commission on Records and Documents of Federal Officials<\/a>, commonly known as the Public Documents Commission. The commission set out to determine what should be done with all Presidential records going forward.<\/p>\n In 1977, the commission submitted a report of their findings to Congress and the President, and by 1978, Congress passed the Presidential Records Act<\/a> (PRA) based on those findings. The PRA stated that Presidential records were no longer private property, and they belonged to the public and would be placed in the custody of the National Archives once a President left office.<\/p>\n Read part 1 of this series on<\/em> The Nixon-Sampson Agreement<\/a><\/em>. And stay tuned for the third post in this series on the location of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prologue.blogs.archives.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/11\/tapes-nixon-address.jpg?ssl=1\")