Government Transparency: Reforming National Security Information Classification.
This Act aims to boost government transparency by limiting excessive secrecy and improving public access to information. It explicitly bans classifying documents to hide legal violations, mismanagement, or administrative errors, thereby increasing government accountability. Citizens will gain faster access to historical records (the 50-year rule) and new mechanisms to request declassification when public interest outweighs national security concerns.
Key points
No Secrecy for Misconduct: Information cannot be classified to conceal legal violations, inefficiency, mismanagement, or to prevent embarrassment.
Automatic Declassification After 50 Years: Documents older than 50 years will automatically become unclassified, opening up historical government records.
Penalties for Over-classification: Agencies must implement systems to penalize employees who frequently or negligently classify information unnecessarily high.
Public Right to Request Review: Citizens can request declassification if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the potential harm to national security.
Expired
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