United States S 3495: Amended Sensible Classification Act of 2023

Bill Text

II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. 3495
To improve the classification and declassification of national security
information, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
DECEMBER 13, 2023
Mr. CORNYN (for himself, Mr. WARNER, Ms. COLLINS, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr.
MORAN, and Mr. KING) introduced the following bill; which was read
twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Govern-
mental Affairs
A BILL
To improve the classification and declassification of national
security information, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Amended Sensible 4
Classification Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. PROMOTING EFFICIENT DECLASSIFICATION RE-6
VIEW. 7
(a) IN GENERAL.—Whenever an agency is processing 8
a request pursuant to section 552 of title 5, United States 9
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Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Information 1
Act’’) or the mandatory declassification review provisions 2
of Executive Order 13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note; relating 3
to classified national security information), or successor 4
order, and identifies responsive classified records that are 5
more than 25 years of age as of December 31 of the year 6
in which the request is received, the head of the agency 7
shall, in accordance with existing processes to protect na-8
tional security under the Freedom of Information Act and 9
the mandatory review provisions of Executive Order 10
13526, review the record and process the record for de-11
classification and release by the National Declassification 12
Center of the National Archives and Records Administra-13
tion, unless the head of agency— 14
(1) makes a certification to Congress, including 15
the congressional intelligence committees, the Com-16
mittee on Armed Services, the Committee on Home-17
land Security and Governmental Affairs, the Com-18
mittee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on the 19
Judiciary of the Senate, and the Committee on 20
Armed Services, the Committee on Oversight and 21
Accountability, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 22
and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 23
Representatives, that the declassification of certain 24
components within the record would be harmful to 25
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the protection of sources and methods or national 1
security, pursuant to existing processes; and 2
(2) provides an explanation to Congress, includ-3
ing the congressional intelligence committees, the 4
Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on 5
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the 6
Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on 7
the Judiciary of the Senate, and the Committee on 8
Armed Services, the Committee on Oversight and 9
Accountability, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 10
and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 11
Representatives, for such certification. 12
(b) APPLICATION.—Subsection (a) shall apply re-13
gardless of whether or not the record described in such 14
subsection is in the legal custody of the National Archives 15
and Records Administration. 16
SEC. 3. TRAINING TO PROMOTE SENSIBLE CLASSIFICA-17
TION. 18
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 19
(1) OVER-CLASSIFICATION.—The term ‘‘over- 20
classification’’ means classification at a level that ex-21
ceeds the minimum level of classification that is suf-22
ficient to protect the national security of the United 23
States. 24
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(2) SENSIBLE CLASSIFICATION.—The term 1
‘‘sensible classification’’ means classification at a 2
level that is the minimum level of classification that 3
is sufficient to protect the national security of the 4
United States. 5
(b) TRAINING REQUIRED.—Each head of an agency 6
with classification authority shall conduct training for em-7
ployees of the agency with classification authority to hold 8
employees accountable for over-classification and to pro-9
mote sensible classification. 10
SEC. 4. IMPROVEMENTS TO PUBLIC INTEREST DECLAS-11
SIFICATION BOARD. 12
Section 703 of the Public Interest Declassification 13
Act of 2000 (50 U.S.C. 3355a) is amended— 14
(1) in subsection (c), by adding at the end the 15
following: 16
‘‘(5) A member of the Board whose term has expired 17
may continue to serve until the earlier of— 18
‘‘(A) the date that a successor is appointed and 19
sworn in; and 20
‘‘(B) the date that is 1 year after the date of 21
the expiration of the term. 22
‘‘(6) Not later than 30 days after the date on which 23
the term of a member of the Board ends, the appointing 24
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