Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act (PRMPA) of 1974

Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act (PRMPA), which applies only to the Nixon Presidential Materials, stipulates that those materials relevant to the understanding of Abuse of Governmental Power and Watergate are to be processed and released to the public prior to the release of all other materials.

• Materials related to the Abuse of Governmental Power and the constitutional and statutory duties of the President and his White House staff are retained by the National Archives. PRMPA mandates that the National Archives preserve and process these materials, and prepare them for public access.
  
  
• The law also states that the National Archives must segregate and return to the estate of former President Nixon those materials identified as purely "personal-private" or "personal-political" and unrelated to the President's constitutional and statutory duties.