NCC Washington Update Vol. 1, #19, April 17, 1995
by Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating
Committee for the Promotion of History <pagem@CapAccess.org>
Clinton Signs New Executive Order on Secrecy Policy
On April 17 President Clinton signed Executive Order 12958 which
has the potential of significantly reforming current policies on
secrecy. Almost two years ago, President Clinton established a task
force to redraft President Reagan's 1982 Executive Order 12356, which
established a policy that encouraged classification and which had no
target date for the declassification of older records. In his signing
statement, Clinton asserted: "The order will lift the veil on
millions of existing documents, keep a great many future documents
from ever becoming classified, and still maintain necessary controls
over information that legitimately needs to be guarded in the
interests of national security." He further noted the cost savings of
the new system and stressed that it will create a new climate of
openness by requiring classifiers to justify what they classify and
encouraging employees to challenge improper classification.
Clinton's new order states that "within 5 years from the date of
this Order, all classified information contained in records that (1)
are more than 25 years old, and (2) have been determined to have
permanent historical value under title 44, United States Code, shall
be automatically declassified whether or not it has been reviewed." In
this provision, Clinton has established a time frame for the release
of information and has adopted "bulk declassification," instead of
total reliance on the tedious and costly page-by-page review of every
document, as a means of declassifying records. The new order provides
federal agencies with a grace period of five years to meet the
provisions of this order. During this period agency heads may use
nine specific criteria given in the order to exempt specific
information from automatic declassification by preparing a written
justification explaining why this information must remain classified
for a longer period.
Both the tone of openness and the automatic declassification
provisions of Executive order 12958 offer dramatic changes to the
policies established by the Reagan Order. Although this order is
about classification of current records as well as declassification of
older records, some of the most significant policy changes are about
the declassification of older records. The new order sets forth
commendable goals; however some of us who have been reviewing and
commenting on various drafts over the last two years have some
lingering concerns that the process as prescribed could be diverted.
If the exemptions that will allow information to continue to be
classified beyond the 25 years are too broadly interpreted, if the
requirement for the justification of extensions results in boiler
plate language that can be used on vast quantities of records, or if
the interagency security classification appeals panel fails to
scrutinize the exceptions to declassification, then the old system
will prevail and the promise of increased openness will not be
realized. There is disappointment that in its final form, this order
did not include stronger language regarding the need to balance the
basic requirements of national security with the imperatives of
democratic government and the public's need to know. Yet when one
considers the many provisions of the Reagan order that resulted in an
enormous mountain of classified information, the Clinton order
represents a major shift away from secrecy and toward openness. If a
good faith effort is made to implement this order, by 2000 all but the
most sensitive records that were created during or before 1975 will be
opened.
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