I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3849 

To amend the National Security Act of 1947 to require notice to Congress 

of certain declassifications of intelligence information, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 20, 2009 

Mr. CONYERS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Select 

Committee on Intelligence (Permanent Select) 

A BILL 

To amend the National Security Act of 1947 to require 

notice to Congress of certain declassifications of intelligence information, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Disclosure of Presi5 dential Declassification of Intelligence Information Act of 

6 2009’’. 

7 SEC. 2. NOTICE TO CONGRESS OF CERTAIN 

8 DECLASSIFICATIONS OF INTELLIGENCE IN9 FORMATION. 

10 (a) NOTICE REQUIRED.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Title V of the National Se2 curity Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 413 et seq.) is 

3 amended by adding at the end the following new sec4 tion: 

5 ‘‘NOTICE TO CONGRESS OF CERTAIN DECLASSIFICATIONS

6 OF INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION

7 ‘‘SEC. 508. (a) DECLASSIFICATION OF INTEL8 LIGENCE INFORMATION.— 

9 ‘‘(1) NOTICE REQUIRED.—Not later than 15 

10 days after the date of the declassification of intel11 ligence information by the President, or Vice Presi12 dent if authorized by a delegation of authority from 

13 the President, the President shall submit to the con14 gressional intelligence committees notice of the de15 classification of such intelligence information. 

16 ‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—Paragraph (1) shall not 

17 apply to the declassification of intelligence informa18 tion as part of a mandatory or systematic declas19 sification of information as described in section 3 of 

20 Executive Order 12958 or any successor Executive 

21 order. 

22 ‘‘(b) OFFICIALS AUTHORIZED TO DECLASSIFY IN23 TELLIGENCE INFORMATION.— 

24 ‘‘(1) INITIAL LIST.—The President shall submit to 

25 the congressional intelligence committees a list of the per26 sonnel of the Executive Office of the President who are 


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1 authorized to declassify information other than informa2 tion originally classified by such personnel. 

3 ‘‘(2) UPDATES.—Not later than 15 days after a per4 son is granted authorization to declassify information 

5 other than information originally classified by such person, 

6 or the authority to declassify such information is revoked 

7 from such person, the President shall submit to the con8 gressional intelligence committees an update of the list re9 ferred to in paragraph (1) and notice of the addition or 

10 removal of a person from such list.’’. 

11 (2) INITIAL LIST SUBMISSION.—The President 

12 shall submit the list required to be submitted under 

13 section 508(b)(1) of the National Security Act of 

14 1947, as added by paragraph (1) of this subsection, 

15 not later than 15 days after the date of the enact16 ment of this Act. 

17 (3) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con18 tents in the first section of such Act (50 U.S.C. 401 

19 note) is amended by inserting after the item relating 

20 to section 507 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 508. Notice to Congress of certain declassifications of intelligence information.’’. 

21 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS ON ADDITIONAL NOTICE.— 

22 It is the sense of Congress that, in furtherance of the pro23 tection of intelligence sources and methods and to ensure 

24 appropriate handling and dissemination of intelligence, 


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1 any notice submitted to the congressional intelligence com2 mittees under section 508(a) of the National Security Act 

3 of 1947, as added by subsection (a)(1) of this section, 

4 should also be submitted to— 

5 (1) the Director of National Intelligence; 

6 (2) the Archivist of the United States; and 

7 (3) the heads of the applicable elements of the 

8 intelligence community. 

Æ 


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