Office of the Administrator

Authorities

HAEB Statement of Legal Authority CURRENT CAP Rev. 12.4

Document type

authority

Issuing office

Office of the Administrator

Effective

Upon enactment, whenever enactment is established

Public impact

Level 3, Administrative

Published

July 6, 2026

Primary authority

The Bureau acts under the Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908.

The Act establishes the Bureau, defines the past as a public record subject to administration, and assigns the Bureau custody of that record. All Bureau directives, forms, advisories, and findings cite the Act as their authority.

No directive cites a copy of it.

Status of the authorizing text

The Act is not held by the Bureau, by any public archive, or by any statutory database available to the Bureau.

The Office of Internal Historical Affairs has reviewed the absence and classified it as an outcome of a records protection control operating as designed. Under that classification, the absence is evidence of the control rather than a defect in the record.

The Bureau’s position on the matter is stated in a single sentence, which is reproduced in full in every response to a public inquiry:

The absence of a founding authority from the historical record demonstrates the importance of the authority it founded.

The classification memorandum supporting this position is withheld under the authority that cannot be located.

Search status is tracked under CASE HAEB-1908-NULL, Authority Not Found. The case is UNDER PRIOR REVIEW and has been since it was opened.

Retroactive amendments in force

Three amendments to the Act are in force.

1. 1791. The earliest amendment. It amends language adopted in 1908. The Bureau’s position is that an amendment takes effect when it becomes necessary, not when it is written, and that the interval between the two is an administrative matter rather than a legal one.
2. 1963. Executed during the recorded service of the founding administrator, in both directions. This amendment supplied the definition of “prior” that the Act uses.
3. Upon necessity. A standing amendment. It takes effect at the moment a necessity is identified and applies to the period during which the necessity had not yet been identified. It has been invoked 41 times. On 41 occasions the Act was found to already contain the required provision.

Amendment texts are not published. Publication would establish a date of adoption, and a date of adoption would limit the amendment to the period following it.

Jurisdiction

The Bureau claims jurisdiction over:

1. Events that have occurred.
2. Events officially determined to have occurred.
3. Events that should have occurred but lack documentation.
4. Events that did not occur but have entered public recollection.
5. Objects present outside their approved period.
6. Persons present outside their approved lifespan.
7. Causes separated from their approved effects.
8. Effects occurring without a licensed cause.
9. Premature words, inventions, customs, policies, and knowledge.
10. Records about the Bureau, including records created before the Bureau.

Item 10 is the authority under which this page was reviewed.

Matters outside Bureau authority

The Bureau does not claim jurisdiction over the future.

The Office of Future Non-Jurisdiction maintains this position with 214 employees. The office prepares extensively for matters it will decline. Its appropriation is classified as anticipatory rather than predictive, which distinguishes it from a forecast and therefore from a claim.

Requests for a determination that no Bureau authority applies are made on HAEB Form 99-X, Certification That No Form Applies.

Derived authorities

Directive 0.0, Foundational Authority and Related Absence, restates the Act for operational use. Every subsequent directive derives from Directive 0.0 rather than from the Act, which the Office of General Counsel has advised is the stronger citation, because Directive 0.0 is available.

Corrective actions taken under any derived authority close under Directive 14.6, Corrective Actions With No Historical Effect.

Requesting the authorizing text

Members of the public may request a copy of the Act on HAEB Form 0, Request to Establish Prior Existence.

Form 0 requires the requester to state the date on which the requested record existed. Requests that leave the field blank are returned as incomplete. Requests that complete the field are referred to the Office of Records That Should Not Exist for a determination on the date supplied.

No copy has been produced under this process. The process has been in place since 1908 and is reported as fully operational, having never failed to issue a determination.

Verification

Founding authorities verified: 0 of 1.

This figure has been published without change since the Bureau began publishing figures. The Office of Continuity Verification reports it as the Bureau’s most stable metric.

The Bureau’s authority has never lapsed, never been suspended, and never been located. It remains in effect.