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.