(1:30 p.m. EDT)

Thank you, Secretary Powell. It is an honor to be here this morning as we mark this important milestone both in the stewardship of the records of the Federal Government and the continuing partnership between the State Department and the National Archives and Records Administration.

At the National Archives, we work everyday to preserve and provide access to the records of our nation. These records not only chronicle our history, they also document the actions of our Government and the rights and entitlements of our citizens.

Today I am very pleased to take receipt of the initial installment of the first major body of electronic textual records the National Archives has ever accessioned.

As you know, these important records spanning the timeframe from July 1973 to December 1974 contain cable communications between the State Department in Washington and foreign service posts all over the world, other Federal agencies, Congress, the public, and foreign embassies and consulates in the United States.

The months in which these records were created saw some dramatic changes in this country and around the world. Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State. The war in Vietnam was winding down. Our relations with the People's Republic of China and its communist rulers were beginning their long road to normalization, and we were enjoying detente with the Soviet Union and its leaders in the Kremlin. The Watergate scandal led to the only Presidential resignation in U.S. history.

And all of this is documented in these cable files by people experiencing firsthand these moments of history.

After processing, the files that are unclassified will be available to the public through the Internet, where virtually anyone who wishes can examine these primary sources of history for themselves.

In order to ensure that we will be able to continue accessioning electronic files from the State Department, I am also pleased that we will today sign a Memorandum of Understanding for a research partnership between our two agencies. Under the partnership, we will work together to test how we will accession State Department electronic records in the future.

Right now the National Archives is working to develop an Electronic Records Archives, which will make it possible to preserve electronic records and make them accessible in the future no matter what technological changes may occur.

Our joint research project may also have broader implications. The results of the research may help us to develop more standardized electronic records transfer methods for all Federal agencies. This could, in turn, help improve access to records for the public.

It may interest you to know that State Department records and other records dealing with U.S. foreign affairs are the second most heavily used category of records after genealogical records.

And while these cable files will, no doubt, be well used by American researchers, they will also be invaluable to historians, students, and others from foreign countries, where records of the actions of the Government officials, and events in their nation's history are not always available to the public—or simply do not exist. I believe that it is a true testament to our democracy that citizens from other nations come here to learn about their own country through our records.

To close, I would like to leave you with a thought from Thomas Jefferson, whose birthday we commemorate today.

Mr. Jefferson once wrote, and I quote, "Information is the currency of democracy."

Although I doubt our third President ever envisioned electronic Government records, I believe he would be very impressed with the work being carried out here today.

For while Thomas Jefferson recognized the importance of information in a democracy, I believe that he and our other Founding Fathers also knew what has been proven over and over throughout history and at Government agencies everyday... that records matter—for us, for our future, and for the future of our democracy.

The electronic files we transfer today are important not only for the information they will provide for researchers from all over the world, but also for providing us an opportunity to further our understanding of the technology required to manage electronic records far into the future.

I salute all of you who have lent your considerable skills and talent to this effort and I am very pleased that we will continue to take on this challenge as partners.

Thank You.