FAS | Government Secrecy | Clinton Docs ||| Index | Search | Join FAS


FAS Intro: See also the ISOO Fact Sheet on the "Impact of Amendment to Executive Order 12958."


November 19, 1999

EXECUTIVE ORDER 13142

- - - - - - -

AMENDMENT TO EXECUTIVE ORDER 12958 --
CLASSIFIED NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to extend and establish specific dates for the time within which all classified information contained in records more than 25 years old that have been determined to have historical value under title 44, United States Code, should be automatically declassified, and to establish the Information Security Oversight Office within the National Archives and Records Administration, it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12958 is amended as follows:

Section 1. In the first sentence of section 3.4(a) of Executive Order 12958, the words "within five years from the date of this order" are deleted and the words "within six and one half years from the date of this order" are inserted in lieu thereof.

Sec. 2. The following new language is inserted at the end of section 3.4(a): "For records otherwise subject to this paragraph for which a review or assessment conducted by the agency and confirmed by the Information Security Oversight Office has determined that they: (1) contain information that was created by or is under the control of more than one agency, or (2) are within file series containing information that almost invariably pertains to intelligence sources or methods, all classified information in such records shall be automatically declassified, whether or not the records have been reviewed, within 8 years from the date of this order, except as provided in paragraph (b), below. For records that contain information that becomes subject to automatic declassification after the dates otherwise established in this paragraph, all classified information in such records shall be automatically declassified, whether or not the records have been reviewed on December 31 of the year that is 25 years from the origin of the information, except as provided in paragraph (b), below."

Sec. 3. Subsections (a) and (b) of section 5.2 are amended to read as follows:

Sec. 4. Subsection (a) and the introductory clause and item (4) of subsection (b) of section 5.3 are amended as follows:

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

THE WHITE HOUSE,
November 19, 1999.

# # #


FAS | Government Secrecy | Clinton Docs ||| Index | Search | Join FAS