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Intelligence Reform Bill Gives
Congress Ability to Appeal Classification Decisions
Wyden provision provides sweeping reform
of classification process;
additional Wyden amendments address privacy and civil liberties,
airline consumer protection and safety
December 8, 2004
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Intelligence
reform legislation passed by the U.S. Senate today will for the
first time give Congress an independent, standing body to which
it can appeal national security classification decisions, said
U.S Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). This provision in the National
Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 was authored by Wyden and U.S.
Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.), and gives Congress the authority
to appeal classification decisions to the Public Interest Declassification
Board. The Board will be made up of nine members with expertise
in national security and related areas; five are appointed by
the President and four by the bipartisan leadership of the Senate
and House. They will be required to provide timely responses to
congressional requests.
“Over-classification of
documents is now the rule rather than the exception,” said
Wyden, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
“This provision will clear the fog of unnecessary secrecy
that has clouded our national intelligence picture for too long.”
Wyden’s full Congressional
Record statement on declassification and intelligence reform can
be found at http://wyden.senate.gov.
Last year alone, the federal
government spent $6.5 billion creating 14.3 million new classified
documents. Just this past summer, Wyden, Lott and others on the
Intelligence Committee aggressively sought to prevent over-classification
of the Committee’s report on prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Originally, the CIA wanted to classify more than half of the report,
but strong objections by Wyden and his colleagues helped reduce
classifications to 20 percent.
In addition to the classification
measure, a provision ensuring the continued senior level status
of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Civil Rights
and Civil Liberties Officer and the Privacy Officer was included
in the intelligence reform bill. This provision was based on legislation
introduced earlier this year by Wyden and U.S. Senator Susan Collins
(R-Maine). The provision clearly defines the roles and duties
of these officers and ensures coordination between these officers
and the Inspector General at DHS.
In addition, the Collins-Wyden measure creates a new position
within the office of the Inspector General whose responsibility
will be to oversee civil rights and civil liberties cases that
are referred to this office. The provision also amends DHS’s
mission statement to include the protection of civil liberties
and civil rights as a priority for the Department and its activities.
Wyden was also successful in
including two key airline consumer protection and safety measures
in the intelligence reform bill:
• Consumers holding tickets
on airlines that suspend service due to bankruptcy will continue
to be able to trade in those tickets for flights on other airlines.
This amendment will provide a one-year extension of a consumer
protection provision first enacted in the fall of 2001 and which
expired November 19. Under the amendment, airline passengers holding
a ticket on an airline that ceases operations due to financial
insolvency will be able to use their tickets on another airline
offering flights on the same routes on a space-available basis.
The Department of Transportation has ruled that under this trade-in
policy, the second airline may charge no more than a $50 administration
fee to process the roundtrip ticket change.
• Butane lighters will
be banned from the passenger cabins of commercial aircraft under
an amendment offered by Wyden and U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-S.D.).
Specifically, the provision will direct the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) to ban the lighters from passenger flights.
Wyden has pushed to have the lighters banned for more than a year.
In October 2003, he wrote Admiral James Loy, then head of the
TSA, to urge a review and reversal of the policy that allowed
the lighters in the cabins of passenger aircraft. However, since
that time, the TSA has refused to ban the items from being carried,
and today’s legislation closes this major security gap.
“Ensuring the safety of
our skies and the health of a major sector of our economy are
both important priorities and a key part of strengthening our
nation’s security,” said Wyden.
The House of Representatives passed the National Intelligence
Reform Act of 2004 yesterday, and the Senate passed an identical
version of the bill late today. The bill now goes to the White
House for signature into law.
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