FAS | Gov't Secrecy | 5/11/98 Hearing || Index | Search |

H.R. 2635, the "Human Rights Information Act," pertains in large measure to the proposed declassification of certain classified government information. Given that focus, I am very pleased to appear before you today to report on the executive branch's progress in implementing the recently established system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying its national security information.

On April 17, 1995, the President issued Executive Order 12958, entitled "Classified National Security Information." This Order took effect on October 14, 1995, only two and one-half years ago. While still in its early stages of implementation, the Order clearly attempts to strike an appropriate balance.

On the one hand, it seeks to reduce the permitted level of secrecy within our Government, and to make available to the American people hundreds of millions of pages of historically valuable documents that no longer require protection in the interest of national security. On the other hand, the Order enables us to safeguard the information that we must in order to protect our nation and our citizens.

Most extraordinary among the provisions of this Order is its requirement regarding the automatic declassification of information. Specifically, section 3.4 of the Order provides that classified information within records of permanent historical value will be automatically declassified 25 years after its creation, unless the pertinent agency head can successfully demonstrate how particular information falls within one of the Order's narrow, enumerated exceptions. This provision is to take effect on April 17, 2000, five years from the date the President issued the Order. That five year window provides agencies, at least in part, an opportunity to review affected records to determine what information could and should continue to be classified beyond 25 years. As we speak, that window is already more than 60% closed.

Already, this new classification and declassification system has achieved some rather remarkable results:

• In the last two years, the agencies of the executive branch have declassified more than 400 million pages of permanently valuable government records.

• Of the more than 650 million pages that the executive branch has declassified since 1980, more than 70% of that total took place in the past three years.

• Agencies that never previously contemplated large-scale declassification, like the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office, now have in place productive declassification units.
• The Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel, a new six member panel representing the Secretaries of State and Defense, the Attorney General, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Archivist of the United States and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, has declassified in their entirety more than 70% of the documents that have come before it on appeal from agency decisions to keep those same documents classified.

• Original classification decisions, the actions most akin to new secrets, have decreased to historic lows.

• Anecdotally, those of us who are exposed to a wide variety of classified information are noting more and more situations in which information that would have been routinely classified in the past is now routinely unclassified, without any increased threat to our national security.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, I can state with total confidence that the United States Government stands far in the forefront among nations in the manner, timing and extent to which it makes available to its citizens and the general public its records of governance, including its formerly classified records. In conversation after conversation that I have had over the years with foreign government officials, and with foreign students, researchers, and journalists, one visitor after another has expressed great admiration for the degree of openness offered by our freedom of information laws, and our security classification system, with its limitations on classification and its emphasis on declassifying information as soon as it is prudent to do so.

These indicators of progress do not mean that we have all the answers about our security classification system or that there aren't tremendous hurdles to clear. For example, the implementation of the new system has been uneven among the major classifying agencies, and a few are only now just getting started; the costs of implementing the system at some agencies are higher than we anticipated; and resource limitations are having a clear impact on agency compliance and oversight. To be sure, the standards and goals established within the new Executive Order are unparalleled. We are not yet certain that every agency, or perhaps any agency, can achieve them. However, only if the targets are difficult can reaching them be noteworthy.

I recognize that the focus of today's hearing is the specific legislation before the Subcommittee, and not the declassification system in general. While I am not appearing as the Administration's witness on its position regarding the legislation, there is one issue concerning it that I would like to address briefly because it may otherwise not be discussed. That issue is the impact that legislation such as H.R. 2635 would have on the Freedom of Information and declassification processes within the executive branch if it becomes law. I address this without getting into the merits or demerits of this particular bill.

Specifically, each time a new law gives priority to processing for public access records pertaining to one subject area, public access to government information in all other subject areas suffers. That is because the agencies of the executive branch have very limited human resources for processing records for public access. The same people who will be reviewing the records of an enacted H.R. 2635 for declassification would otherwise be reviewing the oldest Freedom of Information or mandatory review for declassification requests before their agencies. These requests, which may have been pending for several years, will necessarily be delayed for additional months or even longer. To those frustrated requesters, be they journalists, historians, students, or simply constituents, the public interest in access to the information that they are seeking will seem just as important as the public interest in access to the information at issue in this legislation.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, in accordance with House Report 105-240, which accompanied the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations Act for 1998, the Information Security Oversight Office has submitted two recent reports to the House Appropriations Committee. The first concerned the executive branch's progress in the declassification and classification arenas; the second concerned the estimated costs of administering the security classification system within both government and industry. For the record, I am attaching a copy of both of these reports to this statement.

Once again, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee today. I will be happy to try to answer any questions you may have.

^*The Information Security Oversight Office, or ISOO, is responsible for overseeing Govemment-wide implementation of the security programs under Executive Order 12958, "Classified National Security Information," and Executive Order 12829, "National Industrial Security Program." ISOO is also responsible for reporting annually to the President on the status of those programs. Created in 1978, ISOO became a component of the National Archives and Records Administration in November 1995. In addition to reporting to the Archivist of the United States, the Director of ISOO receives policy guidance from the National Security Council.

Among its functions, ISOO: (1) develops implementing directives and instructions; (2) maintains liaison with all agencies that create or handle classified information; (3) inspects agency programs and reviews their classified records; (4) receives and responds to public complaints, appeals and suggestions; (5) collects and reports to the President and Congress relevant statistical data about the security classification program, including data about its costs; (6) serves as a spokesperson for information about the security classification program; (7) provides program and administrative support for the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel and the Information Security Policy Advisory Council; and (8) recommends policy changes to the President through the National Security Council.

FAS | Gov't Secrecy | 5/11/98 Hearing || Index | Search |