[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 152 (Tuesday, October 20, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2577]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    THE DISCLOSURE OF PRESIDENTIAL DECLASSIFICATION OF INTELLIGENCE 
                        INFORMATION ACT OF 2009

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                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 20, 2009

  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to introduce the 
``Disclosure of Presidential Declassification of Intelligence 
Information Act of 2009.''
  This bill will help increase transparency by requiring the White 
House to release public notices when classified materials are 
declassified. Specifically, this legislation would require the 
President to inform the relevant congressional committees within 15 
days whenever intelligence has been declassified. The bill also 
contains a sense of Congress that additional notice should be given to 
the Director of National Intelligence, the Archivist of the United 
States, and the heads of the applicable elements of the intelligence 
community.
  In January of this year, I released a report documenting several 
abuses and excesses of the Bush Administration. The Report, titled 
``Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations 
Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush,'' contained 50 separate 
recommendations designed to restore and support the traditional checks 
and balances of our constitutional system.
  This bill carries out the recommendation that Congress consider 
legislation requiring the President to announce the declassification of 
classified materials.
  As the report details, the Bush administration selectively leaked 
numerous items of classified information to strengthen the case for war 
in Iraq. For example, evidence suggests that President Bush secretly 
authorized the declassification of information without notice in an 
effort to neutralize Ambassador Joe Wilson's op-ed that raised 
questions about the case for war.
  This bill will help to prevent similar future abuses and political 
manipulation of intelligence authority by alerting Congress when 
information is declassified. Such transparency in presidential 
delegations of declassified authority is a matter of good government 
regardless of who occupies the White House.

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