Five questions I'd like answered regarding government email

[Onlooker]

(1) Why does the government allow the use of private email for official business at all?
(2) Why did it take up until 2014 before the government required that emails about official business be preserved?
(3) Can the Obama administration release information as to use of private email accounts in the current and previous administrations?
(4) What are the rules in Congress regarding the use of private email accounts for official business?
(5) What are the rules at the State level regarding the use of private email accounts for official business?

[clydefrand]

1. I believe an earlier post

from someone who worked (works) in the State Dept. said their e-mail was (and still is) so un-reliable that most staff had to use their 'private' email accounts.

[leveymg]

2. The 1950 Act was amended to include "machine readable" records of "any form" in 1976.

Last edited Wed Mar 4, 2015, 11:07 AM - Edit history (2)

Under the '50 law, private communications become a public record when used for official purposes. It applies to all federal agencies, with specific duties imposed upon the heads of federal agencies.

There is no requirement to use gov't email, just to preserve, report, and convey official correspondence to the Archives. HRC took no steps to do any of that until a few weeks ago. She still has not produced all the email, and there's a question that it can all be recovered. Hillary is the first SoS to not use the gov't system at all, at least as far back as Powell. Her predecessors say they used the gov't system for official purposes, but several used their own accounts for personal messages.

The problem with that law all along has been that it imposes no specific criminal or civil penalties for noncompliance.

What you may have heard to the contrary is simply a convenient error.

http://www.archives.gov/about/laws/fed-agencies.html#unlawful

§ 3106. Unlawful removal, destruction of records

(a) FEDERAL AGENCY NOTIFICATION.—The head of each Federal agency shall notify the Archivist of any actual, impending, or threatened unlawful removal, defacing, alteration, corruption, deletion, erasure, or other destruction of records in the custody of the agency, and with the assistance of the Archivist shall initiate action through the Attorney General for the recovery of records the head of the Federal agency knows or has reason to believe have been unlawfully removed from that agency, or from another Federal agency whose records have been transferred to the legal custody of that Federal agency.

(b) ARCHIVIST NOTIFICATION.—In any case in which the head of the Federal agency does not initiate an action for such recovery or other redress within a reasonable period of time after being notified of any such unlawful action described in subsection (a), or is participating in, or believed to be participating in any such unlawful action, the Archivist shall request the Attorney General to initiate such an action, and shall notify the Congress when such a request has been made.

§ 3107. Authority of Comptroller General

Chapters 21, 25, 27, 29, and 31 of this title do not limit the authority of the Comptroller General of the United States with respect to prescribing accounting systems, forms, and procedures, or lessen the responsibility of collecting and disbursing officers for rendition of their accounts for settlement by the General Accounting Office.

The statutory definition or records in the Federal Records Act (per the latest version shown at https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/44/3301:

As used in this chapter, “records” includes all books, papers, maps, photographs, machine readable materials, or other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by an agency of the United States Government under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by that agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the Government or because of the informational value of data in them. Library and museum material made or acquired and preserved solely for reference or exhibition purposes, extra copies of documents preserved only for convenience of reference, and stocks of publications and of processed documents are not included.

As can be seen, the definition is based on the anything made or received by a federal agency in connection with the transaction of public business, regardless of physical form. The specific things mentioned, like books and maps, do not limit that broader concept.

If you click on the notes tab, you find that "machine readable materials" was added in the 1970s. Again, though, the specific form in which data is embodied is not relevant to the definition. Here's that amendment in the attached Note:

› Title 44 › Chapter 33 › § 3301
44 U.S. Code § 3301 - Definition of records

Current through Pub. L. 113-296, except 113-287, 113-291, 113-295. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

US Code
Notes
Authorities (CFR)

Source

(Pub. L. 90–620, Oct. 22, 1968, 82 Stat. 1299; Pub. L. 94–575, § 4(c)(2),Oct. 21, 1976, 90 Stat. 2727.)
Historical and Revision Notes

Based on 44 U.S. Code, 1964 ed., § 366 (July 7, 1943, ch. 192, § 1,57 Stat. 380).
Amendments

1976—Pub. L. 94–575 expanded “records” to include “machine readable materials”.