PUBLIC LAWS-CH. 481-AUG. 5, 1939 Disposition of un- necessary or useless records. Methods. Disposition of pro- ceeds. Disposition, on fail- ure of joint committee to report. Disposition between sessions. Report to Congress. Report to Archivist by head of agency making disposition. Summarization of data to Congress. Destruction of rec- ords that are a con- tinuing menace to health. Committee on the Disposition of Executive Papers of the House of Representatives, shall constitute a joint committee, to which such lists shall be referred, and said joint committee shall meet and examine said lists and submit to the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, a report of such examination and their recommendation. SEC. 5 . If such joint committee report that any of the records described in the lists referred to them are not needed or useful in the transaction of the current business of the agency by which they were reported to the Archivist and have no permanent value or historical interest to the Federal Government, then it shall be the duty of the head of said agency to dispose of said records by one of the following methods: (a) By sale, upon the best obtainable terms after due publication of notice inviting proposals therefor; (b) By causing them to be destroyed; (c) By transfer (without cost to the United States Government) to any State or dependency of the United States of America or to any appropriate educational institution, library, museum, historical, research, or patriotic organization therein, that has made application to him therefor, through the Archivist of the United States. All moneys derived from the sale of such records shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States by said agency. If said joint committee shall fail to make a report during any regular or special session of Congress on any list of records that has been submitted to Congress by the Archivist not less than ten days prior to the adjournment of such session, the Archivist may empower the agency by which such records were reported to him to dispose of them by any of the methods prescribed in this section. If it shall appear to the Archivist that any records reported to him in the manner prescribed by section 1 of this Act, while Congress is not in session, have no permanent value or historical interest and have the same form numbers or form letters or are of the same specific kind as other records of the same agency previously authorized for disposition by Congress, he may empower said agency to make dispo- sition of said similar records by any of the methods prescribed in this section. The Archivist shall submit to Congress at the beginning of each session a descriptive list of all records authorized for disposition by him during the preceding recess of Congress. SEC. 6. When any records of the IJnited States Government have been disposed of in accordance with the provisions of section 5 of this Act, the head of the agency making such disposition shall submit a written report thereon to the Archivist of the United States in which he shall describe the character and volume of such records and state when and by what method the disposition thereof was accomplished. If any of the records described in a particular report are shown thereby to have been sold, such report shall give the amount of the purchase price received therefor and the total cost of effecting such sales. Said report shall also give the names and post-office addresses of all institutions, associations, or other organizations to which any records therein described have been transferred. SEC. 7. The Archivist of the United States shall transmit to Con- gress, at the beginning of each regular session, a concise summariza- tion of the data contained in the reports filed with him by heads of agencies of the Government during the preceding fiscal year in com- pliance with the provisions of section 6 of this Act. SE. 8. Whenever the Archivist shall determine that any records in his custody, or which have been reported to him by any agency under the terms of section 1 of this Act, are a continuing menace 1220 [53 STAT.
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