I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 5977
To improve the classification and declassification of national security
information, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER17, 2023
Mr. W
ENSTRUP(for himself and Ms. SPANBERGER) introduced the following
bill
O
CTOBER25, 2023
Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and in addition
to the Committees on Intelligence (Permanent Select), and Energy and
Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker,
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris-
diction of the committee concerned
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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Sensible Classification Act of 2023’’. 5
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 6
this Act is as follows: 7
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Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings and sense of Congress.
Sec. 3. Classification authority.
Sec. 4. Promoting efficient declassification review.
Sec. 5. Training to promote sensible classification.
Sec. 6. Improvements to Public Interest Declassification Board.
Sec. 7. Implementation of technology for classification and declassification.
Sec. 8. Studies and recommendations on necessity of security clearances.
Sec. 9. Definitions.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF CONGRESS.
1
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 2
(1) According to a report released by the Office 3
of the Director of Intelligence in 2020 titled ‘‘Fiscal 4
Year 2019 Annual Report on Security Clearance De-5
terminations’’, more than 4,000,000 individuals have 6
been granted eligibility for a security clearance. 7
(2) At least 1,300,000 of such individuals have 8
been granted access to information classified at the 9
Top Secret level. 10
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-11
gress that— 12
(1) the classification system of the Federal Gov-13
ernment is in urgent need of reform; 14
(2) the number of people with access to classi-15
fied information is exceedingly high and must be jus-16
tified or reduced; 17
(3) reforms are necessary to reestablish trust 18
between the Federal Government and the people of 19
the United States; and 20
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(4) classification should be limited to the min-1
imum necessary to protect national security while 2
balancing the public’s interest in disclosure. 3
SEC. 3. CLASSIFICATION AUTHORITY. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The authority to classify informa-5
tion originally may be exercised only by— 6
(1) the President and, in the discharge of exec-7
utive duties and responsibilities, the Vice President; 8
(2) the head or any other official of any agency 9
authorized by the President pursuant to a designa-10
tion of such authority in the Federal Register; and 11
(3) an official of the Federal Government to 12
whom authority to classify information originally has 13
been delegated pursuant to subsection (c). 14
(b) S
COPE OFAUTHORITY.—An individual author-15
ized under this section to classify information originally 16
at a specified level may also classify information originally 17
at a lower level. 18
(c) D
ELEGATION OFORIGINALCLASSIFICATIONAU-19
THORITY.—An official of the Federal Government may be 20
delegated original classification authority subject to the 21
following: 22
(1) Delegation of original classification author-23
ity shall be limited to the minimum required to ad-24
minister this section. Agency heads shall be respon-25
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sible for ensuring that designated subordinate offi-1
cials have a demonstrable and continuing need to ex-2
ercise such authority. 3
(2) Authority to originally classify information 4
at the level designated as ‘‘Top Secret’’ may be dele-5
gated only by the President, in the performance of 6
executive duties, the Vice President, or an agency 7
head or official designated pursuant to subsection 8
(a)(2). 9
(3) Authority to originally classify information 10
at the level designated as ‘‘Secret’’ or ‘‘Confidential’’ 11
may be delegated only by the President, in the dis-12
charge of executive duties and responsibilities, the 13
Vice President, or an agency head or official des-14
ignated pursuant to subsection (a)(2), or the senior 15
agency official described in section 5.4(d) of Execu-16
tive Order 13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note; relating to 17
classified national security information), or successor 18
order, provided that official has been delegated ‘‘Top 19
Secret’’ original classification authority by the agen-20
cy head. 21
(4) Each delegation of original classification au-22
thority shall be in writing and the authority shall 23
not be redelegated except as provided by paragraph 24
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(1), (2), or (3). Each delegation shall identify the of-1
ficial by name or position title. 2
(d) T
RAININGREQUIRED.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—An individual may not be 4
delegated original classification authority under this 5
section unless the individual has first received train-6
ing described in paragraph (2). 7
(2) T
RAINING DESCRIBED.—Training described 8
in this paragraph is training on original classifica-9
tion that includes instruction on the proper safe-10
guarding of classified information and of the crimi-11
nal, civil, and administrative sanctions that may be 12
brought against an individual who fails to protect 13
classified information from unauthorized disclosure. 14
(e) E
XCEPTIONALCASES.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—When an employee, con-16
tractor, licensee, certificate holder, or grantee of an 17
agency who does not have original classification au-18
thority originates information believed by that em-19
ployee, contractor, licensee, certificate holder, or 20
grantee to require classification, the information 21
shall be protected in a manner consistent with Exec-22
utive Order 13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note; relating to 23
classified national security information), or successor 24
order. 25
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(2) TRANSMISSION.—An employee, contractor, 1
licensee, certificate holder, or grantee described in 2
paragraph (1), who originates information described 3
in such paragraph, shall promptly transmit such in-4
formation to— 5
(A) the head of the agency that has appro-6
priate subject matter interest and classification 7
authority with respect to the information; or 8
(B) if it is not clear which agency has ap-9
propriate subject matter interest and classifica-10
tion authority with respect to the information, 11
to the Director of the Information Security 12
Oversight Office of the National Archives and 13
Records Administration. 14
(3) I
NFORMATION SECURITY OVERSIGHT OF -15
FICE ACTION.—If the Director of the Information 16
Security Oversight Office receives information under 17
paragraph (2)(B), the Director shall determine 18
which agency has appropriate subject matter interest 19
and classification authority and submit the informa-20
tion, with appropriate recommendations, to the head 21
of that agency for a classification determination. 22
(4) T
IMING OF DETERMINATIONS .—Not later 23
than 30 days after the head of agency receives infor-24
mation pursuant to paragraph (2)(A) or (3), the 25
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head shall make a determination as to whether to 1
classify the information. 2
SEC. 4. PROMOTING EFFICIENT DECLASSIFICATION RE-3
VIEW. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Whenever the head of an agency 5
is processing a request pursuant to section 552 of title 6
5, United States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom 7
of Information Act’’) or the mandatory declassification re-8
view provisions of Executive Order 13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 9
note; relating to classified national security information), 10
or successor order, and identifies responsive classified 11
records that are more than 25-years-of-age as of Decem-12
ber 31 of the year in which the request is received, the 13
head of the agency shall review the record and process 14
the record for declassification and release by the National 15
Declassification Center of the National Archives and 16
Records Administration. 17
(b) A
PPLICATION.—Subsection (a) shall apply— 18
(1) regardless of whether or not the record de-19
scribed in such subsection is in the legal custody of 20
the National Archives and Records Administration; 21
and 22
(2) without regard for any other provisions of 23
law or existing agreements or practices between 24
agencies. 25
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SEC. 5. TRAINING TO PROMOTE SENSIBLE CLASSIFICA-1
TION. 2
(a) T
RAININGREQUIRED.—Each head of an agency 3
with classification authority shall conduct training for em-4
ployees of such agency with classification authority to dis-5
courage over-classification and to promote sensible classi-6
fication. 7
(b) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
(1) O
VER-CLASSIFICATION.—The term ‘‘over- 9
classification’’ means classification at a level that ex-10
ceeds the minimum level of classification that is suf-11
ficient to protect the national security of the United 12
States. 13
(2) S
ENSIBLE CLASSIFICATION .—The term 14
‘‘sensible classification’’ means classification at a 15
level that is the minimum level of classification that 16
is sufficient to protect the national security of the 17
United States. 18
SEC. 6. IMPROVEMENTS TO PUBLIC INTEREST DECLAS-19
SIFICATION BOARD. 20
Section 703 of the Public Interest Declassification 21
Act of 2000 (50 U.S.C. 3355a) is amended— 22
(1) in subsection (c), by adding at the end the 23
following: 24
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‘‘(5) A member of the Board whose term has expired 1
may continue to serve until a successor is appointed and 2
sworn in.’’; and 3
(2) in subsection (f)— 4
(A) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ before ‘‘Any em-5
ployee’’; and 6
(B) by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(2) In addition to any employees detailed to the 8
Board under paragraph (1), the Board may hire not more 9
than 12 staff members.’’. 10
SEC. 7. IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY FOR CLASSI-11
FICATION AND DECLASSIFICATION. 12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 13
date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator of 14
the Office of Electronic Government of the Office of Man-15
agement and Budget (in this section referred to as the 16
‘‘Administrator’’), in consultation with the Secretary of 17
Defense, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 18
the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the 19
Information Security Oversight Office, the head of the Na-20
tional Declassification Center of the National Archives 21
and Records Administration, and the Public Interest De-22
classification Board, shall— 23
(1) research a technology-based solution— 24
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(A) using machine learning and artificial 1
intelligence to support efficient and effective 2
systems for classification and declassification; 3
and 4
(B) to be implemented on an interoperable 5
and federated basis across the Federal Govern-6
ment; and 7
(2) submit to the President a recommendation 8
regarding a technology-based solution described in 9
paragraph (1) that should be adopted by the Federal 10
Government. 11
(b) S
TAFF.—The Administrator may hire sufficient 12
staff to carry out subsection (a). 13
(c) R
EPORT.— 14
(1) S
UBMISSION.—Not later than 540 days 15
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 16
President shall submit to Congress a report on the 17
technology-based solution recommended by the Ad-18
ministrator under subsection (a)(2) and the deter-19
mination of the President regarding its adoption. 20
(2) F
ORM.—The report under paragraph (1) 21
may be submitted in classified form. 22
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SEC. 8. STUDIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON NECESSITY 1
OF SECURITY CLEARANCES. 2
(a) S
TUDIES ONNECESSITY OFSECURITYCLEAR-3
ANCES.— 4
(1) S
TUDIES REQUIRED .—The head of each 5
agency that grants security clearances to personnel 6
of such agency shall conduct a study on the neces-7
sity of such security clearances. 8
(2) R
EPORTS REQUIRED.— 9
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 10
after the date of the enactment of this Act, 11
each head of an agency that conducts a study 12
under paragraph (1) shall submit to Congress 13
a report on the findings of the head with re-14
spect to such study, which the head may clas-15
sify as appropriate. 16
(B) R
EQUIRED ELEMENTS .—Each report 17
submitted by the head of an agency under sub-18
paragraph (A) shall include, for such agency, 19
the following: 20
(i) The number of personnel eligible 21
for access to information up to the Top Se-22
cret level. 23
(ii) The number of personnel eligible 24
for access to information up to the Secret 25
level. 26
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(iii) Information on the any reduction 1
in the number of personnel eligible for ac-2
cess to classified information based on the 3
study conducted under paragraph (1). 4
(iv) A description of how the head will 5
ensure that the number of security clear-6
ances granted by such agency will be kept 7
to the minimum required for the conduct 8
of agency functions, commensurate with 9
the size, needs, and mission of the agency. 10
(3) I
NDUSTRY.—This subsection shall apply to 11
the Secretary of Defense in the capacity of such Sec-12
retary as the Executive Agent for the National In-13
dustrial Security Program. The Secretary of Defense 14
shall treat contractors, licensees, and grantees as 15
personnel of the Department of Defense for pur-16
poses of the studies and reports required by this 17
subsection. 18
(b) D
IRECTOR OFNATIONALINTELLIGENCEREVIEW 19
OFSENSITIVECOMPARTMENTED INFORMATION.—The 20
Director of National Intelligence shall— 21
(1) review the number of personnel eligible for 22
access to sensitive compartmented information; and 23
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(2) submit to Congress a report on how the Di-1
rector will ensure that the number of such personnel 2
is limited to the minimum required. 3
(c) A
GENCYREVIEW OFSPECIALACCESSPRO-4
GRAMS.—Each head of an agency who is authorized to es-5
tablish a special access program by Executive Order 6
13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note; relating to classified na-7
tional security information), or successor order, shall— 8
(1) review the number of personnel of the agen-9
cy eligible for access to such special access pro-10
grams; and 11
(2) submit to Congress a report on how the 12
head will ensure that the number of such personnel 13
is limited to the minimum required. 14
(d) S
ECRETARY OFENERGYREVIEW OFQ ANDL 15
C
LEARANCES.—The Secretary of Energy shall— 16
(1) review the number of personnel of the De-17
partment of Energy granted Q and L access; and 18
(2) submit to Congress a report on how the 19
Secretary will ensure that the number of such per-20
sonnel is limited to the minimum required. 21
(e) I
NDEPENDENT REVIEWS.—Not later than 180 22
days after the date on which a study is completed under 23
subsection (a) or a review is completed under subsections 24
(b) through (d), the Director of the Information Security 25
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Oversight Office of the National Archives and Records Ad-1
ministration, the Director of National Intelligence, and the 2
Public Interest Declassification Board shall each review 3
the study or review, as the case may be. 4
SEC. 9. DEFINITIONS. 5
In this Act: 6
(1) A
GENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ has the 7
meaning given the term ‘‘Executive agency’’ in sec-8
tion 105 of title 5, United States Code. 9
(2) C
LASSIFIED INFORMATION .—The term 10
‘‘classified information’’ means information that has 11
been determined pursuant to Executive order 12958 12
(50 U.S.C. 3161 note; relating to classified national 13
security information), or successor order, to require 14
protection against unauthorized disclosure and is 15
marked to indicate its classified status when in doc-16
umentary form. 17
(3) C
LASSIFICATION.—The term ‘‘classifica-18
tion’’ means the act or process by which information 19
is determined to be classified information. 20
(4) D
ECLASSIFICATION.—The term ‘‘declas-21
sification’’ means the authorized change in the sta-22
tus of information from classified information to un-23
classified information. 24
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(5) DOCUMENT.—The term ‘‘document’’ means 1
any recorded information, regardless of the nature of 2
the medium or the method or circumstances of re-3
cording. 4
(6) D
OWNGRADE.—The term ‘‘downgrade’’ 5
means a determination by a declassification author-6
ity that information classified and safeguarded at a 7
specified level shall be classified and safeguarded at 8
a lower level. 9
(7) I
NFORMATION.—The term ‘‘information’’ 10
means any knowledge that can be communicated or 11
documentary material, regardless of its physical 12
form or characteristics, that is owned by, is pro-13
duced by or for, or is under the control of the 14
United States Government. 15
(8) O
RIGINATE, ORIGINATING, AND ORIGI-16
NATED.—The term ‘‘originate’’, ‘‘originating’’, and 17
‘‘originated’’, with respect to classified information 18
and an authority, means the authority that classified 19
the information in the first instance. 20
(9) R
ECORDS.—The term ‘‘records’’ means the 21
records of an agency and Presidential papers or 22
Presidential records, as those terms are defined in 23
title 44, United States Code, including those created 24
or maintained by a government contractor, licensee, 25
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certificate holder, or grantee that are subject to the 1
sponsoring agency’s control under the terms of the 2
contract, license, certificate, or grant. 3
(10) S
ECURITY CLEARANCE .—The term ‘‘secu-4
rity clearance’’ means an authorization to access 5
classified information. 6
(11) U
NAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE .—The term 7
‘‘unauthorized disclosure’’ means a communication 8
or physical transfer of classified information to an 9
unauthorized recipient. 10
(12) U
NCLASSIFIED INFORMATION .—The term 11
‘‘unclassified information’’ means information that is 12
not classified information. 13
Æ
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