Office of Internal Historical Affairs

Authority Not Found

HAEB-1908-NULL UNDER PRIOR REVIEW CAP Rev. 12.4

Event class

HN-6, Foundational exception

Public impact

Level 3, Administrative

Issuing office

Office of Internal Historical Affairs

Date of event

Not established

Date opened

March 4, 1906

Published

August 12, 2026

Case summary

HAEB reviewed the availability of the Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908, the authority under which the Bureau performs retrospective correction. The Act could not be produced from the Bureau’s statute file, from the Official Record, or from any archive under Bureau control.

The Office of Internal Historical Affairs found no deficiency. The Bureau exists, operates, issues determinations, and is funded. Under Directive 0.0 those conditions establish authorization.

The founding is not in question. The location of the founding document is.

Historical anchor

The Bureau’s claimed founding is 1908. The claimed authority is the Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908.

No copy of the Act is held by HAEB.

HAEB accepts the founding under the Current Approved Past, Revision 12.4.

The following Bureau holdings respond to a request for the founding date:

1. The Authorities page, which cites the Act of 1908.
2. The seal, which records service since 1789, effective retroactively.
3. HAEB Form 0, Request to Establish Prior Existence, issued at Rev. Prior.
4. The memorandum opening this review, dated March 4, 1906.
5. A property receipt attached to a 1215 filing, bearing a Bureau control number.
6. The 1974 internal audit of Bureau authorities, which describes the Bureau as not yet founded at the time of the review.

All six carry equal authority. The Bureau does not rank its own holdings.

The differences among the six are recorded as formatting differences.

Reported nonconformity

In March 2026, the Office of Internal Historical Affairs requested a certified copy of the Act for inclusion in the Authorities page.

The request returned the following:

1. No copy in the Bureau’s statute file.
2. No copy in the Official Record.
3. No entry in any index of the Bureau’s holdings.
4. One catalog record for a folder. The folder is retained. The folder is empty and is cataloged as evidence.
5. Founding authorities verified, 0 of 1.

The Office of Records That Should Not Exist declined the referral on the grounds that the Act should exist.

Jurisdiction

The Office of Internal Historical Affairs accepted jurisdiction under:

1. Directive 0.0, Foundational Authority and Related Absence.
2. Directive 9.9, Records That Should Not Exist.
3. The Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908.

The third authority is the subject of the review. The Office of General Counsel advised that this does not disqualify it, because a document does not lose effect while it is being looked for.

Public impact was published at Level 3. The internal classification is not published.

Evidence register

EV-1908-NULL-01

Memorandum opening this review. One page. Dated March 4, 1906.

Subject line:

Location of the founding authority.

Scope, stated in one sentence:

The Bureau was not yet founded at the time of this review.

The body directs that the Act be produced within thirty days.

Authority cited: ████████████████

Custody signature: Employee 000.

The memorandum is addressed to this Office. Receipt is marked. The receipt mark is not dated.

EV-1908-NULL-02

Catalog record for the folder assigned to the Act.

Fields as recorded:

1. Title: Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908.
2. Extent: 0 pages.
3. Condition: As received.
4. Retention: Permanent.
5. Related matter: HAEB-UNFILED-0000.

The folder is retained under a permanent schedule. Access to the related matter is withheld.

EV-1908-NULL-03

Certified extract from the 1974 internal audit of Bureau authorities.

The finding, in full:

The Bureau was not yet founded at the time of this review.

The sentence is identical to the scope statement of the 1906 memorandum. The audit does not cite the memorandum.

Marginal notation, undated, in the audit file copy:

Formatting.

EV-1908-NULL-04

Draft revision of the Authorities page, prepared in 2026 by Dr. Lena Or, Chief Historian.

Body sentence:

The Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908 established the Bureau.

Footnote 2 to that sentence:

The Act is cited in this sentence and nowhere else in the Bureau’s holdings.

Footnote 2 does not appear in the published page.

Sequence of Bureau activity

1. Request

In March 2026 the Office requested a certified copy of the Act for publication on the Authorities page. The request was routine. The Authorities page had carried the citation without interruption.

2. Search of holdings

The statute file, the Official Record, the archive, and the holdings index were searched. Founding authorities verified remained 0 of 1.

3. Referral and return

The matter was referred to the Department of Prior Conclusions, which found that the Act had been verified in a previous review and cited the Authorities page as the source of the verification.

The Authorities page cites the Act.

The Office recorded the citation as complete.

4. Discovery of the opening memorandum

During the search, staff located a memorandum requesting the same search. The memorandum is dated March 4, 1906.

The Office reconciled the date as follows:

1. The memorandum is genuine.
2. The date on the memorandum is genuine.
3. The founding date is genuine.
4. The relationship between the second item and the third item is a formatting difference.

Formatting differences are resolved by the Office of Public Recollection and are not reportable.

5. Classification of the absence

Directive 9.9 defines a record whose existence conflicts with the Official Record as a record. The absence of the Act was accordingly cataloged, assigned a retention schedule, and counted.

6. Performance determination

The Bureau measures founding document control by unauthorized disclosures of founding documentation. The reported figure for every period since reporting began is 0.

The Office determined that the inability to produce the Act is consistent with effective control.

The determination was forwarded to the Office of Inspector General and to the budget line for Foundational Reconciliation.

7. Authorization of the review

The Office recorded this docket as responsive to the 1906 memorandum, and the 1906 memorandum as the authorization for this docket.

No further authorization was sought.

Corrective action

HAEB completed the following:

1. Added the Act to the schedule of documents whose location is not published.
2. Filed HAEB Form 0, Request to Establish Prior Existence, on behalf of the Bureau. The form requires a case number issued by the Bureau. HAEB-1908-NULL was supplied.
3. Directed that public requests for the Act submitted on HAEB Form 0 be answered with HAEB Form 99-X, Certification That No Form Applies. Form 99-X is issued by the Bureau and is not available for public completion.
4. Scheduled annual verification of the founding authority. The result of each verification is recorded in advance as consistent with the prior year.
5. Retained the empty folder in place.

The Bureau did not reissue the Act. Reissuance would require establishing the date of original enactment.

Observed consequence

Four effects were recorded after the determination and are retained for reference:

1. The Authorities page now cites this docket in support of the statement that the Act exists. This docket cites the Authorities page.
2. The Foundational Reconciliation budget line was increased for the following period. The increase is supported by the continued absence.
3. Public requests for the Act increased following publication of the Authorities page. All were answered with Form 99-X. No request was refused.
4. Footnote 2 does not appear in the published Authorities page.

The removal is not recorded.

Finding

1. No deficiency was identified. The Bureau exists, operates, and issues determinations that are accepted.
2. The absence of the Act is not evidence that the Act was not enacted. It is evidence that the Act is not available. The Bureau maintains the distinction.
3. The 1906 memorandum establishes that the Bureau’s founding documentation was under review before 1908. The Bureau has therefore never operated without review.
4. Under Directive 14.6, a discrepancy identified during an authorized review and consisting entirely of that review’s own records is not a historical nonconformity.
5. The founding is certified. The founding document is not.

Disposition

UNDER PRIOR REVIEW

The matter is retained. It is counted among incidents under review but not open. Open incidents remain 0.

The founding continues to be effective. Public reliance on the founding date is authorized.

Under prior review

Public guidance

No action is required of the public.

Members of the public who believe they hold a copy of the Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908 should retain the item where found and notify the Office of Internal Historical Affairs in writing. Do not reproduce the item. A copy would create a second record of a document the Bureau has no first record of.

Requests for the Act may be submitted at any time. Requests are answered.

Citizens are not required to establish their own prior existence in order to correspond with the Bureau.

The Bureau has been in continuous operation since 1908, and before that under review.

The event continues to have occurred.