[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 46 (Monday, November 22, 1999)]
[Pages 2405-2406]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Executive Order 13142--Amendment to Executive Order 12958--Classified 
National Security Information

November 19, 1999

    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and 
the laws of the United States of America, and in order to extend and 
establish specific dates for the time within which all classified 
information contained in records more than 25 years old that have been 
determined to have historical value under title 44, United States Code, 
should be automatically declassified, and to establish the Information 
Security Oversight Office within the National Archives and Records 
Administration, it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12958 is 
amended as follows:
    Section 1. In the first sentence of section 3.4(a) of Executive 
Order 12958, the words ``within five years from the date of this order'' 
are deleted and the words ``within six and one-half years from the date 
of this order'' are inserted in lieu thereof.
    Sec. 2. The following new language is inserted at the end of section 
3.4(a): ``For records otherwise subject to this paragraph for which a 
review or assessment conducted by the agency and confirmed by the 
Information Security Oversight Office has determined that they: (1) 
contain information that was created by or is under the control of more 
than one agency, or (2) are within file series containing information 
that almost invariably pertains to intelligence sources or methods, all 
classified information in such records shall be automatically 
declassified, whether or not the records have been reviewed, within 8 
years from the date of this order, except as provided in paragraph (b), 
below. For records that contain information

[[Page 2406]]

that becomes subject to automatic declassification after the dates 
otherwise established in this paragraph, all classified information in 
such records shall be automatically declassified, whether or not the 
records have been reviewed on December 31 of the year that is 25 years 
from the origin of the information, except as provided in paragraph (b), 
below.''
    Sec. 3. Subsections (a) and (b) of section 5.2 are amended to read 
as follows:
    ``(a) The Director of the Information Security Oversight Office, 
under the direction of the Archivist of the United States and in 
consultation with the Assistant to the President for National Security 
Affairs and the co-chairs of the Security Policy Board, shall issue such 
directives as are necessary to implement this order. These directives 
shall be binding upon the agencies. Directives issued by the Director of 
the Information Security Oversight Office shall establish standards for:
(1)          classification and marking principles;
(2)         agency security education and training programs;
(3)         agency self-inspection programs; and
(4)         classification and declassification guides.
    (b) The Archivist of the United States shall delegate the 
implementation and monitorship functions of this program to the Director 
of the Information Security Oversight Office.''
    Sec. 4. Subsection (a) and the introductory clause and item (4) of 
subsection (b) of section 5.3 are amended as follows:
    (a) Subsection (a) shall read ``(a) There is established within the 
National Archives and Records Administration an Information Security 
Oversight Office. The Archivist of the United States shall appoint the 
Director of the Information Security Oversight Office, subject to the 
approval of the President.''
    (b) The introductory clause of subsection (b) shall read ``Under the 
direction of the Archivist of the United States, acting in consultation 
with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the 
Director of the Information Security Oversight Office shall:''.
    (c) Item (4) of subsection (b) shall read ``(4) have the authority 
to conduct on-site reviews of each agency's program established under 
this order, and to require of each agency those reports, information, 
and other cooperation that may be necessary to fulfill its 
responsibilities. If granting access to specific categories of 
classified information would pose an exceptional national security risk, 
the affected agency head or the senior agency official shall submit a 
written justification recommending the denial of access to the President 
through the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs 
within 60 days of the request for access. Access shall be denied pending 
the response,''.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
November 19, 1999.

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., November 22, 
1999]

Note: This Executive order will be published in the Federal Register on 
November 23.