II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1518
To improve the classification and declassification of national security
information, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MAY10, 2023
Mr. C
ORNYN(for himself, Mr. WARNER, Mr. MORAN, Mr. WYDEN, Ms. COL-
LINS, Mr. KING, Mr. ROUNDS, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. CASEY, and Mr.
L
ANKFORD) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
ferred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 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; 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
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Definitions.
Sec. 3. Findings and sense of the Senate.
Sec. 4. Classification authority.
Sec. 5. Promoting efficient declassification review.
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Sec. 6. Training to promote sensible classification.
Sec. 7. Improvements to Public Interest Declassification Board.
Sec. 8. Implementation of technology for classification and declassification.
Sec. 9. Studies and recommendations on necessity of security clearances.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
1
In this Act: 2
(1) A
GENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ has the 3
meaning given the term ‘‘Executive agency’’ in sec-4
tion 105 of title 5, United States Code. 5
(2) C
LASSIFIED INFORMATION .—The term 6
‘‘classified information’’ means information that has 7
been determined pursuant to Executive order 12958 8
(50 U.S.C. 3161 note; relating to classified national 9
security information), or successor order, to require 10
protection against unauthorized disclosure and is 11
marked to indicate its classified status when in doc-12
umentary form. 13
(3) C
LASSIFICATION.—The term ‘‘classifica-14
tion’’ means the act or process by which information 15
is determined to be classified information. 16
(4) D
ECLASSIFICATION.—The term ‘‘declas-17
sification’’ means the authorized change in the sta-18
tus of information from classified information to un-19
classified information. 20
(5) D
OCUMENT.—The term ‘‘document’’ means 21
any recorded information, regardless of the nature of 22
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the medium or the method or circumstances of re-1
cording. 2
(6) D
OWNGRADE.—The term ‘‘downgrade’’ 3
means a determination by a declassification author-4
ity that information classified and safeguarded at a 5
specified level shall be classified and safeguarded at 6
a lower level. 7
(7) I
NFORMATION.—The term ‘‘information’’ 8
means any knowledge that can be communicated or 9
documentary material, regardless of its physical 10
form or characteristics, that is owned by, is pro-11
duced by or for, or is under the control of the 12
United States Government. 13
(8) O
RIGINATE, ORIGINATING, AND ORIGI-14
NATED.—The term ‘‘originate’’, ‘‘originating’’, and 15
‘‘originated’’, with respect to classified information 16
and an authority, means the authority that classified 17
the information in the first instance. 18
(9) R
ECORDS.—The term ‘‘records’’ means the 19
records of an agency and Presidential papers or 20
Presidential records, as those terms are defined in 21
title 44, United States Code, including those created 22
or maintained by a government contractor, licensee, 23
certificate holder, or grantee that are subject to the 24
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sponsoring agency’s control under the terms of the 1
contract, license, certificate, or grant. 2
(10) S
ECURITY CLEARANCE .—The term ‘‘secu-3
rity clearance’’ means an authorization to access 4
classified information. 5
(11) U
NAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE .—The term 6
‘‘unauthorized disclosure’’ means a communication 7
or physical transfer of classified information to an 8
unauthorized recipient. 9
(12) U
NCLASSIFIED INFORMATION .—The term 10
‘‘unclassified information’’ means information that is 11
not classified information. 12
SEC. 3. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF THE SENATE. 13
(a) F
INDINGS.—The Senate makes the following 14
findings: 15
(1) According to a report released by the Office 16
of the Director of Intelligence in 2020 titled ‘‘Fiscal 17
Year 2019 Annual Report on Security Clearance De-18
terminations’’, more than 4,000,000 individuals have 19
been granted eligibility for a security clearance. 20
(2) At least 1,300,000 of such individuals have 21
been granted access to information classified at the 22
Top Secret level. 23
(b) S
ENSE OF THESENATE.—It is the sense of the 24
Senate that— 25
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(1) the classification system of the Federal Gov-1
ernment is in urgent need of reform; 2
(2) the number of people with access to classi-3
fied information is exceedingly high and must be jus-4
tified or reduced; 5
(3) reforms are necessary to reestablish trust 6
between the Federal Government and the people of 7
the United States; and 8
(4) classification should be limited to the min-9
imum necessary to protect national security while 10
balancing the public’s interest in disclosure. 11
SEC. 4. CLASSIFICATION AUTHORITY. 12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The authority to classify informa-13
tion originally may be exercised only by— 14
(1) the President and, in the performance of ex-15
ecutive duties, the Vice President; 16
(2) the head of an agency or an official of any 17
agency authorized by the President pursuant to a 18
designation of such authority in the Federal Reg-19
ister; and 20
(3) an official of the Federal Government to 21
whom authority to classify information originally has 22
been delegated pursuant to subsection (c). 23
(b) S
COPE OFAUTHORITY.—An individual author-24
ized by this section to classify information originally at 25
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a specified level may also classify the information origi-1
nally at a lower level. 2
(c) D
ELEGATION OFORIGINALCLASSIFICATIONAU-3
THORITY.—An official of the Federal Government may be 4
delegated original classification authority subject to the 5
following: 6
(1) Delegation of original classification author-7
ity shall be limited to the minimum required to ad-8
minister this section. Agency heads shall be respon-9
sible for ensuring that designated subordinate offi-10
cials have a demonstrable and continuing need to ex-11
ercise this authority. 12
(2) Authority to originally classify information 13
at the level designated as ‘‘Top Secret’’ may be dele-14
gated only by the President, in the performance of 15
executive duties, the Vice President, or an agency 16
head or official designated pursuant to subsection 17
(a)(2). 18
(3) Authority to originally classify information 19
at the level designated as ‘‘Secret’’ or ‘‘Confidential’’ 20
may be delegated only by the President, in the per-21
formance of executive duties, the Vice President, or 22
an agency head or official designated pursuant to 23
subsection (a)(2), or the senior agency official de-24
scribed in section 5.4(d) of Executive Order 13526 25
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(50 U.S.C. 3161 note; relating to classified national 1
security information), or successor order, provided 2
that official has been delegated ‘‘Top Secret’’ origi-3
nal classification authority by the agency head. 4
(4) Each delegation of original classification au-5
thority shall be in writing and the authority shall 6
not be redelegated except as provided by paragraph 7
(1), (2), and (3). Each delegation shall identify the 8
official by name or position title. 9
(d) T
RAININGREQUIRED.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—An individual may not be 11
delegated original classification authority under this 12
section unless the individual has first received train-13
ing described in paragraph (2). 14
(2) T
RAINING DESCRIBED.—Training described 15
in this paragraph is training on original classifica-16
tion that includes instruction on the proper safe-17
guarding of classified information and of the crimi-18
nal, civil, and administrative sanctions that may be 19
brought against an individual who fails to protect 20
classified information from unauthorized disclosure. 21
(e) E
XCEPTIONALCASES.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—When an employee, Govern-23
ment contractor, licensee, certificate holder, or 24
grantee of an agency who does not have original 25
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classification authority originates information be-1
lieved by that employee, contractor, licensee, certifi-2
cate holder, or grantee to require classification, the 3
information shall be protected in a manner con-4
sistent with Executive Order 13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 5
note; relating to classified national security informa-6
tion), or successor order. 7
(2) T
RANSMITTAL.—An employee, contractor, 8
licensee, certificate holder, or grantee described in 9
paragraph (1), who originates information described 10
in such paragraph, shall promptly transmit such in-11
formation to— 12
(A) the agency that has appropriate sub-13
ject matter interest and classification authority 14
with respect to this information; or 15
(B) if it is not clear which agency has ap-16
propriate subject matter interest and classifica-17
tion authority with respect to the information, 18
to the Director of the Information Security 19
Oversight Office. 20
(3) A
GENCY DECISIONS.—An agency that re-21
ceives information pursuant to paragraph (2)(A) or 22
(4) shall decide within 30 days whether to classify 23
this information. 24
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(4) INFORMATION SECURITY OVERSIGHT OF -1
FICE ACTION.—If the Director of the Information 2
Security Oversight Office receives information under 3
paragraph (2)(B), the Director shall determine the 4
agency having appropriate subject matter interest 5
and classification authority and forward the infor-6
mation, with appropriate recommendations, to that 7
agency for a classification determination. 8
SEC. 5. PROMOTING EFFICIENT DECLASSIFICATION RE-9
VIEW. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Whenever an agency is processing 11
a request pursuant to section 552 of title 5, United States 12
Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Information 13
Act’’) or the mandatory declassification review provisions 14
of Executive Order 13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note; relating 15
to classified national security information), or successor 16
order, and identifies responsive classified records that are 17
more than 25-years-of-age as of December 31 of the year 18
in which the request is received, the head of the agency 19
shall review the record and process the record for declas-20
sification and release by the National Declassification 21
Center of the National Archives and Records Administra-22
tion. 23
(b) A
PPLICATION.—Subsection (a) shall apply— 24
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(1) regardless of whether or not the record de-1
scribed in such subsection is in the legal custody of 2
the National Archives and Records Administration; 3
and 4
(2) without regard for any other provisions of 5
law or existing agreements or practices between 6
agencies. 7
SEC. 6. TRAINING TO PROMOTE SENSIBLE CLASSIFICA-8
TION. 9
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 10
(1) O
VER-CLASSIFICATION.—The term ‘‘over- 11
classification’’ means classification at a level that ex-12
ceeds the minimum level of classification that is suf-13
ficient to protect the national security of the United 14
States. 15
(2) S
ENSIBLE CLASSIFICATION .—The term 16
‘‘sensible classification’’ means classification at a 17
level that is the minimum level of classification that 18
is sufficient to protect the national security of the 19
United States. 20
(b) T
RAININGREQUIRED.—Each head of an agency 21
with classification authority shall conduct training for em-22
ployees of the agency with classification authority to dis-23
courage over-classification and to promote sensible classi-24
fication. 25
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SEC. 7. IMPROVEMENTS TO PUBLIC INTEREST DECLAS-1
SIFICATION BOARD. 2
Section 703 of the Public Interest Declassification 3
Act of 2000 (50 U.S.C. 3355a) is amended— 4
(1) in subsection (c), by adding at the end the 5
following: 6
‘‘(5) A member of the Board whose term has expired 7
may continue to serve until a successor is appointed and 8
sworn in.’’; and 9
(2) in subsection (f)— 10
(A) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ before ‘‘Any em-11
ployee’’; and 12
(B) by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(2)(A) In addition to any employees detailed to the 14
Board under paragraph (1), the Board may hire not more 15
than 12 staff members. 16
‘‘(B) There are authorized to be appropriated to 17
carry out subparagraph (A) such sums as are necessary 18
for fiscal year 2024 and each fiscal year thereafter.’’. 19
SEC. 8. IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY FOR CLASSI-20
FICATION AND DECLASSIFICATION. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 22
date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator of 23
the Office of Electronic Government (in this section re-24
ferred to as the ‘‘Administrator’’) shall, in consultation 25
with the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the Central 26
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Intelligence Agency, the Director of National Intelligence, 1
the Public Interest Declassification Board, the Director of 2
the Information Security Oversight Office, and the head 3
of the National Declassification Center of the National Ar-4
chives and Records Administration— 5
(1) research a technology-based solution— 6
(A) utilizing machine learning and artifi-7
cial intelligence to support efficient and effec-8
tive systems for classification and declassifica-9
tion; and 10
(B) to be implemented on an interoperable 11
and federated basis across the Federal Govern-12
ment; and 13
(2) submit to the President a recommendation 14
regarding a technology-based solution described in 15
paragraph (1) that should be adopted by the Federal 16
Government. 17
(b) S
TAFF.—The Administrator may hire sufficient 18
staff to carry out subsection (a). 19
(c) R
EPORT.—Not later than 540 days after the date 20
of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit 21
to Congress a classified report on the technology-based so-22
lution recommended by the Administrator under sub-23
section (a)(2) and the President’s decision regarding its 24
adoption. 25
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SEC. 9. STUDIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON NECESSITY 1
OF SECURITY CLEARANCES. 2
(a) A
GENCYSTUDIES ONNECESSITY OFSECURITY 3
C
LEARANCES.— 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 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 agency head 14
with respect to such study, which the agency 15
head may classify 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 agency 5
head will ensure that the number of secu-6
rity clearances granted by such agency will 7
be kept to the minimum required for the 8
conduct of agency functions, commensurate 9
with the size, needs, and mission of the 10
agency. 11
(3) I
NDUSTRY.—This subsection shall apply to 12
the Secretary of Defense in the Secretary’s capacity 13
as the Executive Agent for the National Industrial 14
Security Program and the Secretary shall treat con-15
tractors, licensees, and grantees as personnel of the 16
Department of Defense for purposes of the studies 17
and reports required by this 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
agency head will ensure that the number of such 13
personnel 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
Æ
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