S.Amdt. 3104

SA 3104. Mr. PETERS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 4638, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2025 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle D of title XV, add the following:

SEC. 1549. CLASSIFICATION REFORM FOR TRANSPARENCY ACT OF
2024.

(a) Short Title.--This section may be cited as the
``Classification Reform for Transparency Act of 2024''.
(b) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Classification.--The term ``classification'' means the
act or process by which information is determined to be
classified information.
(2) Classification system.--The term ``classification
system'' means the system of the Federal Government for
classification and declassification.
(3) Classified information.--The term ``classified
information'' has the meaning given the term ``classified
information of the United States'' in section 1924(c) of
title 18, United States Code.
(4) Declassification.--The term ``declassification'' means
the authorized change in the status of information from
classified information to unclassified information.
(5) Executive agency.--The term ``Executive agency'' has
the meaning given such term in section 105 of title 5, United
States Code.
(6) Information.--The term ``information'' means any
knowledge that can be communicated or documentary material,
regardless of its physical form or characteristics, that is
owned by, is produced by or for, or is under the control of
the Federal Government.
(c) Automatic Expiration of Classification Status.--
(1)  Automatic expiration.--
(A) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), the
classification marking on any information that is more than
50 years old shall be considered expired, and the information
shall be considered unclassified.
(B) Effective date.--Subparagraph (A) shall take effect on
the date that is 3 years after the date of the enactment of
this Act.
(2) Authority to exempt.--The President may, as the
President considers appropriate, exempt specific information
from the requirement of paragraph (1)(A) pursuant to a
request received by the President pursuant to paragraph (3).
(3) Requests for exemptions.--In extraordinary cases, the
head of an Executive agency may request from the President an
exemption to the requirement of paragraph (1)(A) for specific
information that reveals--
(A) the identity of a human source or human intelligence
source in a case in which the source or a relative of the
source is alive and disclosure would present a clear danger
to the safety of the source or relative;
(B) a key design concept of a weapon of mass destruction;
or
(C) information that would result in critical harm to
ongoing or future operations.
(4) Notification.--
(A) Definition of appropriate committees of congress.--In
this paragraph, the term ``appropriate committee of
Congress'' means--
(i) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the
Senate; and
(ii) the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of
Representatives.
(B) In general.--If an exemption is requested pursuant to
paragraph (3), the President shall, not later than 30 days
after the date on which the President approves or rejects the
requested exemption, submit to Congress, including the
appropriate committees of Congress, notice of such approval
or rejection.
(C) Contents.--Each notice submitted pursuant to
subparagraph (B) for an approval or rejection shall include a
justification for the approval or rejection.
(D) Form.--To the degree practicable, each notice submitted
pursuant to subparagraph (B) shall be submitted in
unclassified form.
(d) Reforms of the Classification System.--
(1) Declassification upon request of congress.--
(A) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date on
which the head of an Executive agency receives a request from
a chair, vice-chair, or ranking member of an appropriate
committee of Congress for declassification of specific
information in the possession of the Executive agency, the
head of the Executive agency shall--
(i) review the information for declassification; and
(ii) provide the member of Congress--

(I) the declassified information or document; or
(II) notice that, pursuant to review under clause (i), the
information is not being declassified, along with a
justification for not declassifying the information.

(B) Complex or lengthy requests.--In a case in which the
head of an Executive agency receives a request as described
in subparagraph (A) and the head determines that such request
is particularly complex or lengthy, such paragraph shall be
applied by substituting ``180 days'' for ``90 days''.
(2) Mandatory declassification review for matters in the
public interest.--The President shall require that the
mandatory declassification review process established
pursuant to Executive Order 13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note;
relating to classified national security information), or
successor order, include--
(A) a process by which members of the public may request
declassification of information in cases in which--
(i) the information meets the standards for classification;
and
(ii) the public interest in disclosure would outweigh the
national security harm that could reasonably be expected to
result from disclosure of the information; and
(B) an expedited process for consideration of
declassification of information in cases in which there is
urgency to inform the public concerning actual or alleged
Federal Government activity.
(3) Identification of harm to national security.--At the
time of original classification, in addition to the
identifications and markings required by section 1.6 of
Executive Order 13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note; relating to
classified national security information), or successor
order, the original classification authority shall identify
in writing the specific harm to national security that could
reasonably be expected to result from disclosure.
(4) Congressional authority to release information.--
Nothing in this section shall be deemed in conflict with, or
to otherwise impede the authority of, Congress under

[[Page S5427]]

clause 3 of section 5 of article I of the Constitution of the
United States to release information in its possession, and
such information so released shall be deemed declassified or
otherwise released in full.
______