Congressional Record: June 9, 1999 (House)
Page H3872-H3964
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2000 H.R. 1401 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, [...] SEC. 1031. IDENTIFICATION IN BUDGET MATERIALS OF AMOUNTS FOR DECLASSIFICATION ACTIVITIES AND LIMITATION ON EXPENDITURES FOR SUCH ACTIVITIES. (a) In General.--(1) Chapter 9 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section: "Sec. 229. Amounts for declassification of records "(a) Specific Identification in Budget.--The Secretary of Defense shall include in the budget justification materials submitted to Congress in support of the Department of Defense budget for any fiscal year (as submitted with the budget of the President under section 1105(a) of title 31) specific identification, as a budgetary line item, of the amounts required to carry out programmed activities during that fiscal year to declassify records pursuant to Executive Order 12958 (50 U.S.C. 435 note), or any successor Executive order, or to comply with any statutory requirement to declassify Government records.". (2) The table of sections at the beginning of such chapter is amended by adding at the end the following new item: "229. Amounts for declassification of records.". (b) Limitation on Expenditures.--The total amount expended by the Department of Defense during fiscal year 2000 to carry out activities to declassify records pursuant to Executive Order 12958 (50 U.S.C. 435 note), or any successor Executive order, or to comply with any statutory requirement to declassify Government records may not exceed $20,000,000. [...] SEC. 3164. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY RECORDS DECLASSIFICATION. (a) Identification in Budget.--The Secretary of Energy shall include in the budget justification materials submitted to Congress in support of the Department of Energy budget for national security programs for any fiscal year (as submitted with the budget of the President under section 1105(a) of title 31) specific identification, as a budgetary line item, of the amounts necessary for programmed activities during that fiscal year to declassify records to carry out Executive Order 12958 (50 U.S.C. 435 note), or any successor Executive order, or to comply with any statutory requirement to declassify Government records. (b) Limitation.--The total amount expended by the Department of Energy during fiscal year 2000 to carry out activities to declassify records pursuant to Executive Order 12958 (50 U.S.C. 435 note), or any successor Executive order, or to comply with any statutory requirement to declassify Government records may not exceed $8,500,000.House Report 106-162
R E P O R T OF THE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON H.R. 1401 Section 1031--Identification in Budget Materials of Amounts for Declassification Activities and Limitation on Expenditures For Such Activities This section would require that any future budget request submitted to the Congress by the Department of Defense (DOD) specifically identify as a budgetary line item funds being requested that would be used to declassify records to carry out Executive Order 12958, or to comply with any subsequent statutory declassification requirements. This section would also limit the expenditure of funds by the Department of Defense for declassification of records during fiscal year 2000 to no more than $20 million. Executive Order 12958, signed by President Clinton on April 17, 1995, requires the automatic declassification of documents after 25 years, subject to narrow exceptions such as the inclusion of nuclear weapon design information. The documents must be reviewed before they are declassified to determine if any of the exceptions apply. Presently, the Department of Defense holds millions of pages of classified documents that will need to be reviewed for declassification. The Department of Defense recently reported to the committee that DOD declassification activities related to Executive Order 12958 are costing the Department approximately $200 million per year, and will continue at this rate through fiscal year 2002. The Department projects that at this rate of expenditures, the backlog of classified documents over 25 years old will be eliminated some time during fiscal year 2003, and after that, the declassification effort will continue to cost $100 million per year as more documents reach the 25 year point. The committee is concerned over the significant drain on operation and maintenance resources resulting from the planned annual expenditure of $200 million due to this accelerated declassification process. The operation and maintenance accounts and key readiness accounts in particular have been dramatically underfunded for years, a serious problem that it exacerbated by unbudgeted contingency operations. The committee believes that record declassification is a significantly lower priority for already scarce O&M funds and believes these funds should be spent addressing shortfalls in higher priority areas such as maintenance, training, spare parts, and other key readiness activities. The committee understands that the services have not been explicitly budgeting for this declassification effort, and vital readiness requirements have therefore had to compete with records declassification for funding. Consequently, this section would also limit the amount of funds available for the Department's fiscal year 2000 records declassification effort to $20 million. The committee has redirected the resulting $180 million savings to a number of critical readiness related accounts identified as suffering from unfunded requirements by the military service chiefs. [...] DIVISION C--DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NATIONAL SECURITY AUTHORIZATION AND OTHER AUTHORIZATIONS TITLE XXXI--DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAMS Records Declassification The budget request contained $15.9 million for records declassification, a $7.4 million increase to the amount appropriated for fiscal year 1999. The committee believes that there are more compelling uses for national defense funds than for declassifying historical records. Therefore, the committee recommends $8.5 million, a decrease of $7.4 million.