WHY SUCH SECRECY?

Historians and biographers need access to presidential papers if Americans are going to learn the full truth of how their government has operated. With an executive order issued several years ago by President Bush, information from four administrations would be shielded from public view. Congress should overturn the order.

Under Executive Order 13233, issued by President Bush on Nov. 1, 2001, any sitting president, himself included, can suppress the publication of not only his own personal papers but those of earlier presidents back to Ronald Reagan. Bill Clinton wants

his papers published, including those involved in his controversial 140 pardons in his last days in office, but Mr. Bush can block their publication.

The order also extends executive privilege to present and former vice presidents.

Note the date of the order. Since it was only seven weeks after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, could the president have believed it was somehow necessary to protect the nation against future attacks? Obviously not, because one of his first acts as president was to direct U.S. Archivist John W. Carlin to delay a statutory deadline and permit Mr. Bush to block publication of the Reagan presidential papers and the George H.W. Bush vice presidential papers.

Some background: Congress put President Nixon’s papers under federal custody in 1974 to prevent their destruction. The 1978 Presidential Records Act made a former president’s papers the property of the federal government and provided that the U.S. archivist could make them available to the public after 12 years.

Now the Bush order has empowered a sitting president to block publication of an earlier president’s records even if he approved publication. If an earlier president were sued to require publication, the sitting president would defend the suit. And current and former vice presidents have been given the power to exert executive privilege over their papers.

In a recent New York Times article, Kitty Kelley, author of the 2004 book “The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty,” wrote that President Bush and his father “can see to it that their administrations pass into history without examination” unless the Bush order is changed. It should be.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D.-Calif., has repeatedly introduced legislation to overturn the executive order and has filed suit to require the archivist to ignore the order and begin releasing records from the Reagan and elder Bush administrations. The full Congress should support his proposal.