The Presidential and Federal Records Act has been revised and updated by the US House of Representatives because recent events have proved that e-mail recording was a "bit" lax, leading to about 5 million lost e-mails a couple of months ago.

Historic letters from the US' past are treated with the accurate respect that they deserve, and not simply tossed in the bin. In this day and age, e-mail has replaced the traditional letter, so it is imperative that they not be deleted. The bill sponsored by Henry Waxman aims to make data recording safer by changing the way data is collected and stored. Every year an audit will take place, just to make sure the White House does not accidentally lose any e-mails.

Henry Waxman is the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and also the main supporter of the bill. "Despite the importance of these records, serious deficiencies exist in the way emails are preserved by the White House and federal agencies," he says, as cited by vnunet.

The bill has passed with 286 votes in favor and 137 votes against, a staggering difference of 149 votes. If the Senate also votes in favor of the bill, it will be put in place for the next five years, which will cost the US Government about $155 millions.
All e-mail messages must be saved, and all back-ups must be protected from deletion. The exact opposite occurred and countless massages in regard to energy policy, the war in Iraq, Valerie Plame, and so on have been permanently lost. In May for example Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington resorted to filing a complaint against the White House because it would not provide copies of e-mails regarding the Iraq war. The White House claimed that the 5 million messages in question had been deleted, as well as the back-ups.