FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 19, 1999
H.R. 1401:
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000
as reported by the
House Armed Services Committee
May 19, 1999
Declassification of Records at DOD. The President’s Executive Order 12958 requires the declassification of all records 25 or more years old. However, the process of reviewing the records to ensure that highly sensitive information, such as nuclear weapons design data, is not automatically declassified, is very costly. In fact, DOD reports that they annually spend $200 million of operations and maintenance funds to implement Executive Order 12958. As there are more important defense readiness uses for O&M funds, the committee recommends a provision to limit DOD operations and maintenance spending for record declassification to no more than $20 million during fiscal year 2000.