On April 26th the Public Interest Declassification Board invited you to submit your ideas on transforming the national security classification system. The Board received the following papers. They appear in the order in which they were received:
- Steven Aftergood, Federation of American Scientists: “Set a Mandatory Performance Goal to Catalyze Transformation”
- Harry Cooper: “Transforming the National Security Classification Process: A Perspective On the Way Ahead”
- Sharon Bradford Franklin and Alison Roach, The Constitution Project: “Reining in Excessive Secrecy: Recommendations for Reform of the Classification System”
- Mike German, American Civil Liberties Union: “Reducing Overclassification and Protecting the Public’s Right to Know”
- Bill Burr and Nate Jones, National Security Archive: “Three Ideas for Transformation: Classification Tax, Equity Reform, and Sunshine Dates”
- Ann Levin, CACI: “Self-Declassifying Documents: A System for Letting the Data Identify When It is Ready for Declassification”
- Elizabeth Goitein, Brennan Center for Justice: “Reducing Overclassification Through Accountability”
Thank you for your submissions. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on these papers as well as papers the Board had developed:
Paper 1: Using Technology to Improve Classification and Declassification
Paper 2: Reconsidering Information Management in the Electronic Environment
Paper 3: Regularizing the Declassification Review of Classified Congressional Records
Paper 4: Discretionary Declassification and Release of Contemporary National Security Information
Paper 5: Simplifying the Declassification Review Process for Historical Records
Paper 6: Stewardship of Our Classified History
Paper 7: Information Security and Access in the Electronic Environment
Paper 8: A Half-Life for Historical Formerly Restricted Data (FRD)
In addition to posting on the blog, please come to the Board’s May 26th public meeting at the McGowan Theater at the National Archives Building from 10am-12:30pm.