# Plain Language Summary: PAST Act of 2023

This bill is about making sure that presidential records—documents, emails, and messages created by the President and their staff—are properly preserved and made available to the public and future administrations. The core issue the bill addresses is that presidents have sometimes used personal email accounts, text messages, or social media to conduct official business, and those records can disappear or be deleted without being saved anywhere. The bill wants to close this loophole by requiring that anything related to presidential duties—whether it's sent from an official government email or a personal Gmail account—must be documented, preserved, and eventually made public.

The bill makes several practical changes to how presidential records are handled. First, it expands the definition of what counts as a presidential record to include metadata (the technical information about when messages were sent, who they were from, etc.) and clarifies that records created on personal messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, or even social media platforms are just as important as official emails. Second, it requires the National Archives to publicly report twice a year on how well the White House is managing its records, creating transparency about whether records are being properly kept. Third, it makes it harder for a president to simply destroy records—they now have to ask the Archivist (the official in charge of national records) for permission first, and the Archivist must publicly disclose any discussions about destroying records within five business days.

The bill also strengthens the public's ability to challenge decisions about keeping records secret. Currently, courts have limited power to review whether records should be released; this bill allows people to sue in federal court to get access to presidential records that aren't legitimately classified or protected by legal privilege. Additionally, the bill emphasizes that messaging apps with automatic deletion features (like Snapchat or disappearing messages) shouldn't be used for official business without strict controls. For ordinary citizens, this means more government transparency and a better chance of understanding what decisions were made during a presidency—though it also means the bill is primarily about accountability and historical record-keeping rather than something that directly affects daily life for most people.

PAST Act of 2023

Quigley, Mike

Promoting Accountability and Security in Transitions Act of 2023 or the PAST Act of 2023 This bill revises requirements for preservation of presidential records and requires that information be made available to the next administration in a timely fashion. Specifically, the bill (1) requires the President to receive written guidance from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) before destroying any records, (2) prohibits White House staff from using nonofficial electronic messaging accounts that cannot be easily copied or forwarded to official accounts, (3) establishes consequences for former Presidents who destroy presidential records, (4) requires former Presidents to cover the cost of digitizing records for display in a presidential library, and (5) requires NARA to ensure that newly inaugurated Presidents are granted easy access to national security information.