Amendment To Executive Order 12958-Classified National Security Information
Signed November 19, 1999·William J. Clinton·64 FR 66089
Source
Everything on this page is drawn from the Federal Register, the official daily journal of the United States government. Where this page and the source disagree, the source governs.
Plain-language summary
Amends Executive Order 12958 on classified national security information. Extends the deadline for automatic declassification of historically valuable records over 25 years old from five years to six and a half years from the original order's date, and adds an exception allowing an eight-year window for records involving multiple agencies or intelligence sources and methods, subject to review by the Information Security Oversight Office. It also revises how that office operates: the Archivist of the United States, in consultation with the President's national security adviser, oversees the office and its director, who is appointed by the Archivist subject to presidential approval. The office is given authority to issue binding directives on classification standards, conduct on-site agency reviews, and require agency cooperation, with a process for agencies to seek denial of access to certain classified information through the national security adviser within 60 days.
Not written or reviewed by a person. Read the full order below for anything you intend to rely on.
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Legal standing
Not yet published. Court challenges, injunctions and rulings tied to individual orders will appear here once each can be linked to its source record.
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Claimed authority
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
Quoted from the order as written. Many orders cite nothing more specific than “the Constitution and the laws”; this reproduces what the order claims, not an assessment of whether it holds.
Disposition
Amends: EO 12958, April 17, 1995
Compiled after the fact by the National Archives, so recent orders often have none yet. An empty disposition means no record, not no activity.
The order, in full
Executive Order 13142 of November 19, 1999
Amendment To Executive Order 12958--Classified
National Security Information
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 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,”.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
November 19, 1999.Reproduced from the Federal Register plain-text record, signed November 19, 1999. Typesetting artifacts are removed; no wording is changed.