Carter signs the Presidential Records Act, making White House records public property

President Jimmy Carter signed the Presidential Records Act on November 4, 1978, declaring that the official records of the president and vice president are public property belonging to the United States, not the personal property of the officeholder. The law transferred custody of presidential records to the National Archives upon a president leaving office and required the Archivist to preserve and eventually make them accessible through the Freedom of Information Act. The PRA was a direct response to Nixon's attempt after his resignation to gain control of and potentially destroy the White House tape recordings, ensuring no future president could treat official records as personal property.