DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Honorable John Warner
1010 DEFENSE PENTAGON
WASHINGTON, DC 20301-1010February 27, 2001
Chairman, Committee on Armed Services
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510-6050Dear Mr. Chairman:
Pursuant to Section 1041(d) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2000, I am providing the report on the Department of Defense efforts relating to the declassification of classified records. Under the provisions of Executive Order 12958, "Classified National Security Information" and its amendment Executive Order 13142, the date for automatic declassification of records is extended to October 17, 2001, with additional time for intelligence and multi-agency records. The Department of the Army, Department of the Navy, National Imagery & Mapping Agency and National Security Agency requested, and were granted until April 17, 2003 to complete automatic declassification reviews.
As requested, the current status of declassification is as follows:
cc:
- The Department of Defense surveyed all components and determined two organizations would not complete the review of all relevant records prior to automatic declassification. Formal requests for extension will be forwarded from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Joint Forces Command to the Information Security Oversight Office. All other DoD Components are projected to be able to review all relevant records for declassification prior to the pertinent deadline.
- The estimated cost of reviewing records for declassification is almost $30 million for this fiscal year which is consistent with Section 1075 of the FY 2001 National Defense Authorization Act that limits declassification expenditure to $30 million in FY 2001.
- The Department estimates that approximately 20 million pages of pre-1975 materials will not be reviewed prior to October 17, 2001, the date scheduled for automated declassification. If the extension requests are approved, we will complete the review of these records by April 17, 2003.
- Given the approved extensions as stated in the first paragraph, the Department estimates that all reviews will be completed prior to the automatic declassification of records. Should special declassification project[s] divert resources, the Department will immediately request additional time to ensure sufficient time is afforded to safeguard national security information.
Sincerely,
[signed:] Rudy de Leon
Honorable Carl Levin
Ranking Member