Amendment To Executive Order 12958-Classified National Security Information

1999-11-23Executive Order 13142
Signed by: William J. Clinton
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Headline: Requires Federal Agencies to Follow New Declassification Deadlines

What it does: Agencies must meet new automatic declassification deadlines and follow binding directives from the Information Security Oversight Office on classification, declassification, training, and inspections.

Real World Impact:
  • Extends and sets new automatic declassification deadlines for older classified records.
  • Creates an oversight office that can inspect agency security programs and require reports.
  • Requires agencies to adopt new standards for marking, training, and self-inspection.
Topics: national security, records declassification, government oversight, federal records management

Summary

This order changes when older classified government records must be automatically declassified and creates an office to oversee that process. It replaces a five-year deadline with a six-and-one-half-year deadline, sets an eight-year deadline for certain multi-agency or intelligence-related files, and fixes dates for records that become eligible later.

The order establishes an Information Security Oversight Office inside the agency that manages federal records. That office will issue binding rules for classification, marking, training, self-inspections, and declassification guides, and it can review agencies on-site.

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