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WYDEN, LOTT PROPOSE REVAMPING
NATIONAL SECURITY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS
Senators’ bill creates Independent
National Security Classification Board to recommend changes to
classification standards and process and reexamine classification
decisions
July 15, 2004
Washington, DC
– U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.)
today introduced legislation to revamp the way intelligence information
becomes classified. The proposed bipartisan legislation would
create an Independent National Security Classification Board to
review and make recommendations on altering the current classification
standards and process, and also to serve as a standing body to
reexamine classification decisions at the request of Congress
and certain Executive Branch agencies.
“We need clear standards
and procedures to ensure a reasonable balance between the need
for citizens to have access to information and the need to protect
national security,” said Wyden. “This unbiased, independent
Board will apply some common sense to the national security classification
system.”
The legislation introduced by
Wyden and Lott, along with original co-sponsors Bob Graham (D-Fla.)
and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), would set up a three-person Classification
Board, with the President and the bipartisan leadership in the
Senate and House of Representatives each recommending one member,
subject to Senate confirmation. The Board would have two key tasks:
1) To review and make recommendations
on the standards and process used to classify information for
national security purposes;
2) To serve as a standing body
to act on Congressional and certain Executive Branch requests
to reexamine classification decisions.
This bill would, for the first
time, give Congress an independent body to which it can appeal
a national security classification decision. It would also clarify
and streamline the process by which classification decisions are
made, in turn leading to increased accountability and transparency
for the American people. The Board would look at national security
classification across all government agencies.
The proposed legislation authorizes
$2 million in the first year for the Board to be set up. It will
be independently housed outside of any government organization.
For the past 6 weeks, the Senate
Intelligence Committee and the CIA have been wrestling over what
portions of the report on Iraq can be made public. In the beginning,
the CIA redacted significant numbers of pages of the report. It
was only because of a strong, bipartisan effort that large portions
of the report are available to the public today.
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