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Classification Stats, State Activity

Published: May 31, 2006
Last Updated: May 31, 2006

The Information Security Oversight Office has released its 2005 Report to the President, an overview of government classification and declassification activity.

The ISOO found that among those reporting there were 14.2 million classification decisions made in 2005, down 9 percent from 15.6 million in 2004. Despite the decrease, however, overall classification decisions remain up some 5.5 million since 2001.

"Judging by the reported numbers, it appears that the executive branch agencies, as a whole, are applying better diligence in the management of their information security programs," according to the report.

However, it continued, "ISOO views the decrease reported in classification, particularly after three years of rising numbers, as a positive step, but it remains cautious. ISOO will review agency reporting procedures to confirm their reliability.

When it came to releasing information, ISOO discovered an increase of about 4 percent in the number of pages declassified; 29.5 million pages in 2005, compared to 28 million in 2004.

The Departments of Defense, Commerce, Energy and Transportation, and NASA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the National Security Council were cited by the report for their "large increases in declassification productivity."

The executive branch is, "for the most part" is on track to meet the Dec. 31, 2006 deadline set in a 1995 executive order calling for automatic declassification of records 25 years old and older that have permanent historical value, ISOO reported. However, "we must implement a better way [to process information] if agencies are to fully implement the groundbreaking framework created more than 10 years ago."

The "most part," however, apparently does not include the vice president's office. According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, Vice President Cheney's office in 2005 refused to report its classification and declassification activities—as it has done consistently since the executive order requiring it was signed in 2003. A spokesperson for the vice president maintains the directive does not apply to that office because it has both executive and legislative functions.

"Nothing in the executive order excuses the OVP [office of the vice president] from reporting on classification activity in the performance of its executive duties merely because it also has separate legislative functions. It is hard to see how such an argument could be proposed by a reasonable person in good faith," wrote Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists in a letter to the director of the ISOO.

Urging the ISOO to either compel compliance or ask the Justice Department to render an opinion on the order's applicability to the OVP, Aftergood noted that, "by casting its non-compliance as a matter of principle, the OVP has mounted a challenge to the integrity of classification oversight and to the authority of the executive order. In my opinion, it is a challenge that should not go unanswered."

Meanwhile, at the state level, The Associated Press reviewed state laws on public information that have been enacted since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. in September 2001. It found that state legislatures "have passed more than 1,000 laws changing access to information, approving more than twice as many measures that restrict information as laws that open government books."

"While fear of another terrorist attack drove many new proposals, it wasn't the only motivator. Concerns about identity theft, medical privacy and the vulnerability of computerized records have sparked many pieces of legislation, too," AP National Writer Robert Tanner reported.

"Lawmakers say they are recalibrating the balance between information that could be used against society and what society at large needs to know," he added.

So while there have been some very moderate gains at the federal level—more of a leveling off than a reversal—that is compounded by findings at the state and local levels to remind us to remain ever vigilant in protecting the public's right to know what its government is doing.

Sunshine Week 2007: March 11-17.