On July 7, 2014, the President signed into law S. 1681, “Fiscal 2014 Intelligence Authorization.” The Senate passed the bill on June 11, 2014 and the House of Representatives passed it by voice vote on June 24, 2014. The legislation included a section that amended Section 710(b) of the Public Interest Declassification Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-567; 50 U.S.C. 3161 note) by striking “2014.” and inserting “2018.” This extension will allow our Members to continue our work advocating for reform of the classification system. We believe modernization is essential to foster more effective national security policies and practices and improve democratic discourse.
We thank the Congress for including this language in the legislation and the President for signing it. We would also like to thank Representative Mike Rogers who first introduced H.R. 4681, “Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015,” Senators Jeanne Shaheen and James Risch and Representative Darrell Issa and their staff members for their support of the PIDB’s work and for their efforts to see the PIDB reauthorized.