FAS | Gov't Secrecy | ISOO Docs ||

• Extends the deadline for automatic declassification under section 3.4 of E.O. 12958 beyond April 17, 2000.

• Establishes generally an October 17, 2001 deadline for non-exempted information contained in permanently valuable records more than 25 years old.

• Establishes an April 17, 2003 deadline for non-exempted information contained in records for which more than one agency has a classification equity or for those records in file series replete with information pertaining to intelligence sources or methods.

• Maintains the policy of automatically declassifying non-exempt information contained in permanently valuable records that are 25 years old. Therefore, the new October 2001 deadline will pertain to permanently valuable records created up to October 1976, and the new April 2003 deadline will pertain to records created up to April 1978.

• Requires the Information Security Oversight Office to approve the agency's designation of those records subject to the April 2003 deadline.

• Does not affect information contained in file series already identified by agency heads and approved by the President as exempted from automatic declassification under section 3.4(c) of E.O. 12958.

• Continues the requirement for the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel's (ISCAP) concurrence for all exempted information except that contained in a file series already approved for exemption by the President.

• Extends the time by which an agency must submit proposed exemptions to the ISCAP from October 1999, to no later than 180 days before the newly established deadlines.

• Establishes midnight on December 31 of the year that is 25 years from the origin of the affected information as the time and date of automatic declassification for all information subject to automatic declassification after the initial deadlines. For example, a memorandum dated July 20, 1980, would be automatically declassified not at midnight on July 20, 2005, but rather at midnight on December 31, 2005.

• Confirms ISOO's placement as an administrative component of the National Archives and Records Administration, receiving policy guidance from the National Security Council.

• Substitutes the Director of ISOO for the Director of the Office of Management and Budget as the official responsible for issuing government-wide implementing directives pertaining to classification and marking principles; security education and training; agency self-inspection programs; and classification and declassification guides.

• Retains the Co-Chairs of the Security Policy Board as the officials responsible for issuing a government-wide implementing directive pertaining to safeguarding classified information.