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Congressional Record: June 9, 1999 (House)
Page H3872-H3964

 
        NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2000

                              H.R. 1401

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

[...]

     SEC. 1031. IDENTIFICATION IN BUDGET MATERIALS OF AMOUNTS FOR 
                   DECLASSIFICATION ACTIVITIES AND LIMITATION ON 
                   EXPENDITURES FOR SUCH ACTIVITIES.

       (a) In General.--(1) Chapter 9 of title 10, United States 
     Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 
     section:

     "Sec. 229. Amounts for declassification of records

       "(a) Specific Identification in Budget.--The Secretary of 
     Defense shall include in the budget justification materials 
     submitted to Congress in support of the Department of Defense 
     budget for any fiscal year (as submitted with the budget of 
     the President under section 1105(a) of title 31) specific 
     identification, as a budgetary line item, of the amounts 
     required to carry out programmed activities during that 
     fiscal year to declassify records pursuant to Executive Order 
     12958 (50 U.S.C. 435 note), or any successor Executive order, 
     or to comply with any statutory requirement to declassify 
     Government records.".
       (2) The table of sections at the beginning of such chapter 
     is amended by adding at the end the following new item:

     "229. Amounts for declassification of records.".
       (b) Limitation on Expenditures.--The total amount expended 
     by the Department of Defense during fiscal year 2000 to carry 
     out activities to declassify records pursuant to Executive 
     Order 12958 (50 U.S.C. 435 note), or any successor Executive 
     order, or to comply with any statutory requirement to 
     declassify Government records may not exceed $20,000,000.

[...]

     SEC. 3164. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY RECORDS DECLASSIFICATION.

       (a) Identification in Budget.--The Secretary of Energy 
     shall include in the budget justification materials submitted 
     to Congress in support of the Department of Energy budget for 
     national security programs for any fiscal year (as submitted 
     with the budget of the President under section 1105(a) of 
     title 31) specific identification, as a budgetary line item, 
     of the amounts necessary for programmed activities during 
     that fiscal year to declassify records to carry out Executive 
     Order 12958 (50 U.S.C. 435 note), or any successor Executive 
     order, or to comply with any statutory requirement to 
     declassify Government records.
       (b) Limitation.--The total amount expended by the 
     Department of Energy during fiscal year 2000 to carry out 
     activities to declassify records pursuant to Executive Order 
     12958 (50 U.S.C. 435 note), or any successor Executive order, 
     or to comply with any statutory requirement to declassify 
     Government records may not exceed $8,500,000.


House Report 106-162


                              R E P O R T

                                 OF THE

                      COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                   ON

                               H.R. 1401



    Section 1031--Identification in Budget Materials of Amounts for 
  Declassification Activities and Limitation on Expenditures For Such 
                               Activities

    This section would require that any future budget request 
submitted to the Congress by the Department of Defense (DOD) 
specifically identify as a budgetary line item funds being 
requested that would be used to declassify records to carry out 
Executive Order 12958, or to comply with any subsequent 
statutory declassification requirements. This section would 
also limit the expenditure of funds by the Department of 
Defense for declassification of records during fiscal year 2000 
to no more than $20 million.
    Executive Order 12958, signed by President Clinton on April 
17, 1995, requires the automatic declassification of documents 
after 25 years, subject to narrow exceptions such as the 
inclusion of nuclear weapon design information. The documents 
must be reviewed before they are declassified to determine if 
any of the exceptions apply. Presently, the Department of 
Defense holds millions of pages of classified documents that 
will need to be reviewed for declassification.
    The Department of Defense recently reported to the 
committee that DOD declassification activities related to 
Executive Order 12958 are costing the Department approximately 
$200 million per year, and will continue at this rate through 
fiscal year 2002. The Department projects that at this rate of 
expenditures, the backlog of classified documents over 25 years 
old will be eliminated some time during fiscal year 2003, and 
after that, the declassification effort will continue to cost 
$100 million per year as more documents reach the 25 year 
point.
    The committee is concerned over the significant drain on 
operation and maintenance resources resulting from the planned 
annual expenditure of $200 million due to this accelerated 
declassification process. The operation and maintenance 
accounts and key readiness accounts in particular have been 
dramatically underfunded for years, a serious problem that it 
exacerbated by unbudgeted contingency operations. The committee 
believes that record declassification is a significantly lower 
priority for already scarce O&M funds and believes these funds 
should be spent addressing shortfalls in higher priority areas 
such as maintenance, training, spare parts, and other key 
readiness activities. The committee understands that the 
services have not been explicitly budgeting for this 
declassification effort, and vital readiness requirements have 
therefore had to compete with records declassification for 
funding.
    Consequently, this section would also limit the amount of 
funds available for the Department's fiscal year 2000 records 
declassification effort to $20 million. The committee has 
redirected the resulting $180 million savings to a number of 
critical readiness related accounts identified as suffering 
from unfunded requirements by the military service chiefs.

[...]

 DIVISION C--DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NATIONAL SECURITY AUTHORIZATION AND 
                          OTHER AUTHORIZATIONS

      TITLE XXXI--DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAMS

                        Records Declassification

    The budget request contained $15.9 million for records 
declassification, a $7.4 million increase to the amount 
appropriated for fiscal year 1999.
    The committee believes that there are more compelling uses 
for national defense funds than for declassifying historical 
records. Therefore, the committee recommends $8.5 million, a 
decrease of $7.4 million.




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