Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., has proposed a bipartisan bill that would create a presidential task force to streamline the federal government’s document classification system and reduce the declassification backlog.
“We are facing an overwhelming backlog of hundreds of millions of pages awaiting declassification and experts telling us that 50 to 90 percent of classified materials could be made public without risk to our national security,” Peters said in a statement published Monday.
“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,” added Peters, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The Classification Reform for Transparency Act would direct federal employees to present a written justification of classification decisions stating national security risks that could stem from the disclosure of specific information.
The proposed legislation would require government agencies to respond to congressional members’ declassification requests in a timely manner and ensure that employees are not routinely overclassifying information.
The measure establish a “drop-dead date” of 50 years from the time of original classification, at which point the document’s classified status would expire, and allow the public to submit declassification requests when potential national security risks are outweighed by the public interest in disclosure.