[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 24, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5426-S5427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 3104. Mr. PETERS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by 
him to the bill S. 4638, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2025 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle D of title XV, add the following:

     SEC. 1549. CLASSIFICATION REFORM FOR TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 
                   2024.

       (a) Short Title.--This section may be cited as the 
     ``Classification Reform for Transparency Act of 2024''.
       (b) Definitions.--In this section:
       (1) Classification.--The term ``classification'' means the 
     act or process by which information is determined to be 
     classified information.
       (2) Classification system.--The term ``classification 
     system'' means the system of the Federal Government for 
     classification and declassification.
       (3) Classified information.--The term ``classified 
     information'' has the meaning given the term ``classified 
     information of the United States'' in section 1924(c) of 
     title 18, United States Code.
       (4) Declassification.--The term ``declassification'' means 
     the authorized change in the status of information from 
     classified information to unclassified information.
       (5) Executive agency.--The term ``Executive agency'' has 
     the meaning given such term in section 105 of title 5, United 
     States Code.
       (6) Information.--The term ``information'' means any 
     knowledge that can be communicated or documentary material, 
     regardless of its physical form or characteristics, that is 
     owned by, is produced by or for, or is under the control of 
     the Federal Government.
       (c) Automatic Expiration of Classification Status.--
       (1)  Automatic expiration.--
       (A) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), the 
     classification marking on any information that is more than 
     50 years old shall be considered expired, and the information 
     shall be considered unclassified.
       (B) Effective date.--Subparagraph (A) shall take effect on 
     the date that is 3 years after the date of the enactment of 
     this Act.
       (2) Authority to exempt.--The President may, as the 
     President considers appropriate, exempt specific information 
     from the requirement of paragraph (1)(A) pursuant to a 
     request received by the President pursuant to paragraph (3).
       (3) Requests for exemptions.--In extraordinary cases, the 
     head of an Executive agency may request from the President an 
     exemption to the requirement of paragraph (1)(A) for specific 
     information that reveals--
       (A) the identity of a human source or human intelligence 
     source in a case in which the source or a relative of the 
     source is alive and disclosure would present a clear danger 
     to the safety of the source or relative;
       (B) a key design concept of a weapon of mass destruction; 
     or
       (C) information that would result in critical harm to 
     ongoing or future operations.
       (4) Notification.--
       (A) Definition of appropriate committees of congress.--In 
     this paragraph, the term ``appropriate committee of 
     Congress'' means--
       (i) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
     Affairs and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the 
     Senate; and
       (ii) the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the 
     Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of 
     Representatives.
       (B) In general.--If an exemption is requested pursuant to 
     paragraph (3), the President shall, not later than 30 days 
     after the date on which the President approves or rejects the 
     requested exemption, submit to Congress, including the 
     appropriate committees of Congress, notice of such approval 
     or rejection.
       (C) Contents.--Each notice submitted pursuant to 
     subparagraph (B) for an approval or rejection shall include a 
     justification for the approval or rejection.
       (D) Form.--To the degree practicable, each notice submitted 
     pursuant to subparagraph (B) shall be submitted in 
     unclassified form.
       (d) Reforms of the Classification System.--
       (1) Declassification upon request of congress.--
       (A) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date on 
     which the head of an Executive agency receives a request from 
     a chair, vice-chair, or ranking member of an appropriate 
     committee of Congress for declassification of specific 
     information in the possession of the Executive agency, the 
     head of the Executive agency shall--
       (i) review the information for declassification; and
       (ii) provide the member of Congress--

       (I) the declassified information or document; or
       (II) notice that, pursuant to review under clause (i), the 
     information is not being declassified, along with a 
     justification for not declassifying the information.

       (B) Complex or lengthy requests.--In a case in which the 
     head of an Executive agency receives a request as described 
     in subparagraph (A) and the head determines that such request 
     is particularly complex or lengthy, such paragraph shall be 
     applied by substituting ``180 days'' for ``90 days''.
       (2) Mandatory declassification review for matters in the 
     public interest.--The President shall require that the 
     mandatory declassification review process established 
     pursuant to Executive Order 13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note; 
     relating to classified national security information), or 
     successor order, include--
       (A) a process by which members of the public may request 
     declassification of information in cases in which--
       (i) the information meets the standards for classification; 
     and
       (ii) the public interest in disclosure would outweigh the 
     national security harm that could reasonably be expected to 
     result from disclosure of the information; and
       (B) an expedited process for consideration of 
     declassification of information in cases in which there is 
     urgency to inform the public concerning actual or alleged 
     Federal Government activity.
       (3) Identification of harm to national security.--At the 
     time of original classification, in addition to the 
     identifications and markings required by section 1.6 of 
     Executive Order 13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note; relating to 
     classified national security information), or successor 
     order, the original classification authority shall identify 
     in writing the specific harm to national security that could 
     reasonably be expected to result from disclosure.
       (4) Congressional authority to release information.--
     Nothing in this section shall be deemed in conflict with, or 
     to otherwise impede the authority of, Congress under

[[Page S5427]]

     clause 3 of section 5 of article I of the Constitution of the 
     United States to release information in its possession, and 
     such information so released shall be deemed declassified or 
     otherwise released in full.
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