July 10, 2000

MEMORANDUM FOR CABINET SECRETARIES AND AGENCY HEADS

FROM: JOHN PODESTA
CHIEF OF STAFF

RE: ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY PROJECT

The President wants to build a complete record of his Administration and its accomplishments for the use of historians and visitors to the Clinton Library. Toward that end, he has initiated an Administrative History Project to ensure that future scholars will be able to examine the major events of each department and agency in this Administration.

We are asking you to undertake this urgent task as expeditiously as possible. Though we expect the format to vary from department to department, we envisage a written history of the department/agency from January 1993 to the present, supplemented with relevant documentation. Emphasis should be placed on major policy initiatives and legislation, but the histories should also include, in different degree, all of the following:

· Organizational changes
· Personnel changes
· Changes in mission
· Operating methods (e.g., regional or field efforts)
· Interagency relations
· Legislative relations
· External relations (business, labor, academic, etc.)
· Timelines

All of us have worked extraordinarily hard over the last seven years. These histories will be essential to the way in which our work is perceived and evaluated, so I ask that you bring a high degree of personal attention to them. Here at the White House, the Project will be coordinated by Ted Widmer, Senior Advisor to the President for Special Projects (456-7105). He will be following up this memo.

Thank you for your quick response.

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Proposed Schedule for Administrative History Project:

July 11 Memo distributed
July 25 Meeting with Department and Agency representatives
August 15 Outlines submitted
September 12 First Progress Report
October 10 Second Progress Report
November 14 First Draft submitted
December 12 Formal submission of Administrative Histories