I agree the article might could use a little tweaking to be more clear. The response I got from the LoC, to me, sounded like they don't have any copies of the films in the NFR and never did. They requested STAR WARS, but were only offered the '97 SE & declined to accept it. I can't speak for the Technicolor print as they haven't mentioned that in my brief correspondence so far. They do have all three films in the copyright depository, but they are in questionable condition at best and are apparently only to be used for copyright disputes. This may answer why they don't just transfer the copyright prints to the NFR...legally, they probably can't.

Actually, on second reading of the article, I think the following paragraph sums up what seems to have happened pretty well... Maybe there's a way to emphasize this part?:

"So, it seems that in the early 1990s when they requested a print Lucas dragged his feet about restoration work (probably because they were starting to work on the Special Edition), and when they finally offered them one it was the 1997 Special Edition. Meanwhile, a privator donor leant a 1977 Technicolor print for archiving, but it couldn't be copied and was returned."