II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 3495
To improve the classification and declassification of national security
information, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
DECEMBER13, 2023
Mr. C
ORNYN(for himself, Mr. WARNER, Ms. COLLINS, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr.
M
ORAN, 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) I
NGENERAL.—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) A
PPLICATION.—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) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 19
(1) O
VER-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) T
RAININGREQUIRED.—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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authority of the member shall submit to Congress a plan 1
to appoint a successor.’’; and 2
(2) in subsection (f)— 3
(A) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ before ‘‘Any em-4
ployee’’; and 5
(B) by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(2) In addition to any employees detailed to the 7
Board under paragraph (1), the Board may, subject to 8
the availability of funds, hire not more than 12 staff mem-9
bers.’’. 10
SEC. 5. 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 (in this section re-15
ferred to as the ‘‘Administrator’’) shall, in consultation 16
with the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the Central 17
Intelligence Agency, the Director of National Intelligence, 18
the Public Interest Declassification Board, the Director of 19
the Information Security Oversight Office, and the head 20
of the National Declassification Center of the National Ar-21
chives and Records Administration— 22
(1) research a technology-based solutions— 23
(A) to support efficient and effective sys-24
tems for classification and declassification; and 25
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(B) to be implemented on an interoperable 1
and federated basis across the Federal Govern-2
ment; and 3
(2) submit to the President and Congress, in-4
cluding the congressional intelligence committees, 5
the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee 6
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 7
the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee 8
on the Judiciary of the Senate, and the Committee 9
on Armed Services, the Committee on Oversight and 10
Accountability, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 11
and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 12
Representatives, recommendations regarding a tech-13
nology-based solutions described in paragraph (1). 14
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 540 days after the date 15
of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit 16
to Congress a classified report describing actions taken to 17
implement the recommendations under subsection (a)(2). 18
SEC. 6. STUDIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON NECESSITY 19
OF SECURITY CLEARANCES. 20
(a) A
GENCYSTUDIES ONNECESSITY OFSECURITY 21
C
LEARANCES.— 22
(1) S
TUDIES REQUIRED .—The head of each 23
agency that grants security clearances to personnel 24
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of such agency shall conduct a study on the neces-1
sity of such clearances. 2
(2) R
EPORTS REQUIRED.— 3
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 4
after the date of the enactment of this Act, 5
each head of an agency that conducts a study 6
under paragraph (1) shall submit to Congress, 7
including the congressional intelligence commit-8
tees, the Committee on Armed Services, the 9
Committee on Homeland Security and Govern-10
mental Affairs, the Committee on Foreign Rela-11
tions, the Committee on the Judiciary of the 12
Senate, and the Committee on Armed Services, 13
the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, 14
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the 15
Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 16
Representatives, a report on the findings of the 17
agency head with respect to such study, which 18
the agency head may classify as appropriate. 19
(B) R
EQUIRED ELEMENTS .—Each report 20
submitted by the head of an agency under sub-21
paragraph (A) shall include, for such agency, 22
the following: 23
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(i) The number of personnel eligible 1
for access to information up to the ‘‘Top 2
Secret’’ level. 3
(ii) The number of personnel eligible 4
for access to information up to the ‘‘Se-5
cret’’ level. 6
(iii) Information on any reduction in 7
the number of personnel eligible for access 8
to classified information based on the 9
study conducted under paragraph (1). 10
(iv) A description of how the agency 11
head will ensure that the number of secu-12
rity clearances granted by such agency will 13
be kept to the minimum required for the 14
conduct of agency functions, commensurate 15
with the size, needs, and mission of the 16
agency. 17
(3) I
NDUSTRY.—This subsection shall apply to 18
the Secretary of Defense in the Secretary’s capacity 19
as the Executive Agent for the National Industrial 20
Security Program, and the Secretary shall treat con-21
tractors, licensees, and grantees as personnel of the 22
Department of Defense for purposes of the studies 23
and reports required by this subsection. 24
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(b) DIRECTOR OFNATIONALINTELLIGENCEREVIEW 1
OFSENSITIVECOMPARTMENTED INFORMATION.—Not 2
later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this 3
Act, the Director of National Intelligence shall— 4
(1) review the number of personnel eligible for 5
access to sensitive compartmented information; and 6
(2) submit to Congress, including the congres-7
sional intelligence committees, the Committee on 8
Armed Services, the Committee on Homeland Secu-9
rity and Governmental Affairs, the Committee on 10
Foreign Relations, the Committee on the Judiciary 11
of the Senate, and the Committee on Armed Serv-12
ices, the Committee on Oversight and Account-13
ability, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the 14
Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-15
resentatives, a report on how the Director will en-16
sure that the number of such personnel is limited to 17
the minimum required. 18
(c) A
GENCYREVIEW OFSPECIALACCESSPRO-19
GRAMS.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enact-20
ment of this Act, each head of an agency who is authorized 21
to establish a special access program by Executive Order 22
13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note; relating to classified na-23
tional security information), or successor order, shall— 24
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(1) review the number of personnel of the agen-1
cy eligible for access to such special access pro-2
grams; and 3
(2) submit to Congress, including the congres-4
sional intelligence committees, the Committee on 5
Armed Services, the Committee on Homeland Secu-6
rity and Governmental Affairs, the Committee on 7
Foreign Relations, the Committee on the Judiciary 8
of the Senate, and the Committee on Armed Serv-9
ices, the Committee on Oversight and Account-10
ability, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the 11
Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-12
resentatives, a report on how the agency head will 13
ensure that the number of such personnel is limited 14
to the minimum required. 15
(d) S
ECRETARY OFENERGYREVIEW OFQ ANDL 16
C
LEARANCES.—Not later than 1 year after the date of 17
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall— 18
(1) review the number of personnel of the De-19
partment of Energy granted Q and L access; and 20
(2) submit to Congress, including the congres-21
sional intelligence committees, the Committee on 22
Armed Services, the Committee on Homeland Secu-23
rity and Governmental Affairs, the Committee on 24
Foreign Relations, the Committee on the Judiciary 25
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of the Senate, and the Committee on Armed Serv-1
ices, the Committee on Oversight and Account-2
ability, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the 3
Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-4
resentatives, a report on how the Secretary will en-5
sure that the number of such personnel is limited to 6
the minimum required 7
(e) I
NDEPENDENT REVIEWS.—Not later than 180 8
days after the date on which a study is completed under 9
subsection (a) or a review is completed under subsections 10
(b) through (d), the Director of the Office of Management 11
and Budget shall each review the study or review, as the 12
case may be. 13
SEC. 7. DEFINITION OF CONGRESSIONAL INTELLIGENCE 14
COMMITTEES. 15
In this Act, the term ‘‘congressional intelligence com-16
mittees’’ has the meaning given such term in section 3 17
of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003). 18
Æ
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