Presidential Records Act

The Presidential Records Act of 1978 establishes that the official records of the president and vice president are public property, owned by the United States rather than the officeholder, and must be preserved and ultimately transferred to the National Archives. It was enacted after the Watergate era to ensure the documentation and accountability of presidential decision-making. This Act was referenced in concerns about the Signal messaging scandal in 2025, in which senior officials discussed military operations on a commercial app whose auto-deleting messages conflicted with federal records-retention requirements.