Key senator pushes fresh reforms to how agencies manage classified information

A top lawmaker is pushing updates to how agencies handle classified information, months after Congress passed some of the most significant classification reforms in years.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) earlier this month introduced the “Classification Reform for Transparency Act.” The bill would establish a presidential task force to streamline the classification system.

The task force would be charged with narrowing the criteria that allows information to be classified. It would develop specific guidance around how agencies define “damage to the national security” and “intelligence sources and methods.” Both are often used as justification to classify information and keep it secret for long periods of time.

In a statement, Peters said agencies face an enormous backlog of classified information awaiting declassification. He said experts estimate 50-90% of classified materials could be made public without damaging national security.

“This over-classification obscures truly sensitive information and erodes trust in government,” Peters said. “My bipartisan bill will address this issue by updating the classification system to enhance our ability to safeguard critical information, while promoting the transparency that is so vital to our democracy.”

The legislation also aims to remedy situations where employees over-classify information for fear of being penalized for accidentally releasing sensitive information.

Peters’ bill would require agencies to conduct “periodic audits or other evidence-based approaches” to identify employees that over-classify information. The bill would allow agencies to levy administrative penalties on those employees and remove their classification authority.

The bill would also establish a safe harbor for employees who “fail to apply classification markings” due to “ambiguity” around whether the information should have been classified in the first place.

Recent classified information reforms

Peters’ bill comes after lawmakers included some significant reforms to how agencies manage classified information in last year’s defense policy bill.

The measures passed under last year’s “Sensible Classification Act” requires agencies to review and process requests for classified records that are more than 25 years old, unless the head of the agency explains to Congress why the record should not be declassified.

It also requires agencies to conduct training for employees to hold them “accountable” for overclassification and to promote “sensible classification.”

And by the end of this year, it requires agencies to come up with a plan for developing a cross-government, integrated technology solution that supports “efficient and effective systems for classification and declassification.”

In a June letter to federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana, a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked for an update to the Biden administration’s efforts to use technologies to better manage classified information.

“This opportunity to adapt our classification and declassification processes will greatly enhance the government’s ability to maintain accountability of our classified documents and records, streamline critical processes important to our national security, and work to reestablish trust and transparency between the United States government and the American people,” the letter said.

Meanwhile, a recent Defense Department research project has found success with using artificial intelligence to manage and declassify government secrets.

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