Managing Secrecy: Security Classification Reform - The Government Secrecy Act Proposal

Publication Date: July 1998

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

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Research Area: Government

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Abstract:

The end of the Cold War, heightened interest in effecting greater economy and better management in government operations, and the considered recommendations of a national study commission on official secrecy have all contributed to legislation reforming the security classification program and giving it a statutory foundation. Largely prescribed in a series of successive presidential executive orders issued over the past 50 years, security classification policy and procedure provide the rationale and arrangements for designating information officially secret for reasons of protecting the security of the nation.

Legislating a statutory security classification system was first recommended in 1973 by the House Committee on Government Operations in its third report to the 93rd Congress. Proponents of such a proposal view it as the mandating of a program in accordance with constitutionally prescribed legislative procedure. The resulting statute would also afford Congress a stronger role in oversight of the program, including its efficiency and economy of operation. Prior to the 105th Congress, the prospect of legislating a statutory basis for classifying information was most recently considered by a House committee in 1994.

Current bipartisan and bicameral reform efforts concentrating on the proposed Government Secrecy Act (S. 712/H.R. 1546) evidence renewed congressional interest in establishing a statutory mandate for security classification and declassification.