111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 553 
AN ACT 
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop 
a strategy to prevent the over-classification of homeland 
security and other information and to promote the shar-
ing of unclassified homeland security and other informa-
tion, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reducing Over-Classi-
fication Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) A key conclusion in the Final Report of the 
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the 
United States (commonly known as the ‘‘9/11 Com-
mission’’) was the need to prevent over-classification 
by the Federal Government. 
(2) The 9/11 Commission and others have ob-
served that the over-classification of homeland secu-
rity information interferes with accurate, actionable, 
and timely homeland security information sharing, 
increases the cost of information security, and need-
lessly limits public access to information. 
(3) The over-classification problem, which has 
worsened since the 9/11 attacks, causes considerable 
confusion about what information can be shared 
with whom both internally at the Department of 
Homeland Security and with its external partners. 
This problem negatively impacts the dissemination 
of homeland security information to the Depart-
ment’s State, local, tribal, and territorial homeland 
security and law enforcement partners, private sec-
tor customers, and the public.
(4) Excessive government secrecy stands in the 
way of a safer and more secure homeland. This 
trend is antithetical to the creation and operation of 
the information sharing environment established 
under section 1016 of the Intelligence Reform and 
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (6 U.S.C. 485), 
and must be halted and reversed. 
(5) To do so, the Department should start with 
the understanding that all departmental information 
that is not properly classified, or marked as con-
trolled unclassified information and otherwise ex-
empt from disclosure, should be made available to 
members of the public pursuant to section 552 of 
title 5, United States Code (commonly referred to as 
the ‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’). 
(6) The Department should also develop and 
administer policies, procedures, and programs that 
promote compliance with applicable laws, executive 
orders, and other authorities pertaining to the prop-
er use of classification markings and the United 
States National Archives and Records Administra-
tion policies implementing them.
SEC. 3. OVER-CLASSIFICATION PREVENTION WITHIN THE 
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY. 
Subtitle A of title II of the Homeland Security Act 
of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 121 et seq.) is amended by adding at 
the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 
210F. 
OVER-CLASSIFICATION 
PREVENTION 
PRO-
GRAM. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall develop and 
administer policies, procedures, and programs within the 
Department to prevent the over-classification of homeland 
security information, terrorism information, weapons of 
mass destruction information, and other information with-
in the scope of the information sharing environment estab-
lished under section 1016 of the Intelligence Reform and 
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (6 U.S.C. 485) that 
must be disseminated to prevent and to collectively re-
spond to acts of terrorism. The Secretary shall coordinate 
with the Archivist of the United States and consult with 
representatives of State, local, tribal, and territorial gov-
ernment and law enforcement, organizations with exper-
tise in civil rights, civil liberties, and government over-
sight, and the private sector, as appropriate, to develop 
such policies, procedures, and programs. 
‘‘(b) REQUIREMENTS.—Not later than one year after 
the date of the enactment of the Reducing Over-Classifica-
tion Act of 2009, the Secretary, in administering the poli-
cies, procedures, and programs required under subsection 
(a), shall— 
‘‘(1) create, in consultation with the Archivist 
of the United States, standard classified and unclas-
sified formats for finished intelligence products cre-
ated by the Department, consistent with any govern-
ment-wide standards, practices or procedures for 
similar products; 
‘‘(2) require that all finished intelligence prod-
ucts created by the Department be simultaneously 
prepared in the standard unclassified format, pro-
vided that such an unclassified product would rea-
sonably be expected to be of any benefit to a State, 
local, tribal or territorial government, law enforce-
ment agency or other emergency response provider, 
or the private sector, based on input provided by the 
Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination 
Group Detail established under section 210D; 
‘‘(3) ensure that such policies, procedures, and 
programs protect the national security as well as the 
information privacy rights and legal rights of United 
States persons pursuant to all applicable law and 
policy, including the privacy guidelines for the infor-
mation sharing environment established pursuant to 
section 1016 of the Intelligence Reform and Ter-
rorism Prevention Act of 2004 (6 U.S.C. 485), as 
appropriate; 
‘‘(4) establish an ongoing auditing mechanism 
administered by the Inspector General of the De-
partment or other appropriate senior Department of-
ficial that randomly selects, on a periodic basis, clas-
sified information from each component of the De-
partment that generates finished intelligence prod-
ucts to— 
‘‘(A) assess whether applicable classifica-
tion policies, procedures, rules, and regulations 
have been followed; 
‘‘(B) describe any problems with the ad-
ministration of the applicable classification poli-
cies, procedures, rules, and regulations, includ-
ing specific non-compliance issues; 
‘‘(C) recommend improvements in aware-
ness and training to address any problems iden-
tified in subparagraph (B); and 
‘‘(D) report at least annually to the Com-
mittee on Homeland Security of the House of 
Representatives, the Committee on Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs of the Sen-
ate, and the public, in an appropriate format,
on the findings of the Inspector General’s au-
dits under this section; 
‘‘(5) establish a process whereby employees may 
challenge original classification decisions made by 
Department employees or contractors and be re-
warded with specific incentives for successful chal-
lenges resulting in the removal of classification 
markings or the downgrading of them; 
‘‘(6) inform employees and contractors that fail-
ure to comply with the policies, procedures, and pro-
grams established under this section could subject 
them to a series of penalties; and 
‘‘(7) institute a series of penalties for employees 
and contractors who repeatedly fail to comply with 
the policies, procedures, and programs established 
under this section after having received both notice 
of their noncompliance and appropriate training or 
re-training to address such noncompliance. 
‘‘(c) 
FINISHED
INTELLIGENCE
PRODUCT
DE-
FINED.—The term ‘finished intelligence product’ means a 
document in which an intelligence analyst has evaluated, 
interpreted, integrated, or placed into context raw intel-
ligence or information.’’.
SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT OF OVER-CLASSIFICATION PREVEN-
TION WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF HOME-
LAND SECURITY. 
Subtitle A of title II of the Homeland Security Act 
of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 121 et seq.) is further amended by add-
ing at the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 210G. ENFORCEMENT OF OVER-CLASSIFICATION PRE-
VENTION PROGRAMS. 
‘‘(a) 
PERSONAL
IDENTIFIERS.—The 
Secretary 
shall— 
‘‘(1) assess the technologies available or in use 
at the Department by which an electronic personal 
identification number or other electronic identifying 
marker can be assigned to each Department em-
ployee and contractor with original classification au-
thority in order to— 
‘‘(A) track which documents have been 
classified by a particular employee or con-
tractor; 
‘‘(B) determine the circumstances when 
such documents have been shared; 
‘‘(C) identify and address over-classifica-
tion problems, including the misapplication of 
classification markings to documents that do 
not merit such markings; and
‘‘(D) assess the information sharing im-
pact of any such problems or misuse; 
‘‘(2) develop an implementation plan for a De-
partment standard for such technology with appro-
priate benchmarks, a timetable for its completion, 
and cost estimate for the creation and implementa-
tion of a system of electronic personal identification 
numbers or other electronic identifying markers for 
all relevant Department employees and contractors; 
and 
‘‘(3) upon completion of the implementation 
plan described in paragraph (2), or not later than 
180 days after the date of the enactment of the Re-
ducing Over-Classification Act of 2009, whichever is 
earlier, the Secretary shall provide a copy of the 
plan to the Committee on Homeland Security of the 
House of Representatives and the Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the 
Senate. 
‘‘(b) TRAINING.—The Secretary, in coordination with 
the Archivist of the United States, shall— 
‘‘(1) require annual training for each Depart-
ment employee and contractor with classification au-
thority or those responsible for analysis, dissemina-
tion, preparation, production, receiving, publishing,
or otherwise communicating written classified infor-
mation, including training to— 
‘‘(A) educate each employee and contractor 
about— 
‘‘(i) the Department’s requirement 
that all classified finished intelligence prod-
ucts that they create be simultaneously 
prepared in unclassified form in a standard 
format prescribed by the Department, pro-
vided that the unclassified product would 
reasonably be expected to be of any benefit 
to a State, local, tribal, or territorial gov-
ernment, law enforcement agency, or other 
emergency response provider, or the pri-
vate sector, based on input provided by the 
Interagency Threat Assessment and Co-
ordination Group Detail established under 
section 210D; 
‘‘(ii) the proper use of classification 
markings, including portion markings; and 
‘‘(iii) the consequences of over-classi-
fication and other improper uses of classi-
fication 
markings, 
including 
the 
misapplication of classification markings to 
documents that do not merit such mark-
ings, and of failing to comply with the De-
partment’s policies and procedures estab-
lished under or pursuant to this section, 
including the negative consequences for the 
individual’s personnel evaluation, homeland 
security, information sharing, and the 
overall success of the Department’s mis-
sions; 
‘‘(B) serve as a prerequisite, once com-
pleted successfully, as evidenced by an appro-
priate certificate, for— 
‘‘(i) obtaining classification authority; 
and 
‘‘(ii) renewing such authority annu-
ally; and 
‘‘(C) count as a positive factor, once com-
pleted successfully, in the Department’s employ-
ment, evaluation, and promotion decisions; and 
‘‘(2) ensure that such program is conducted ef-
ficiently, in conjunction with any other security, in-
telligence, or other training programs required by 
the Department to reduce the costs and administra-
tive burdens associated with the additional training 
required by this section. 
‘‘(c) DETAILEE PROGRAM.—The Secretary shall—
‘‘(1) implement a Departmental detailee pro-
gram to detail Departmental personnel to the Na-
tional Archives and Records Administration for one 
year, for the purpose of— 
‘‘(A) training and educational benefit for 
the Department personnel assigned so that they 
may better understand the policies, procedures 
and laws governing original classification au-
thorities; 
‘‘(B) bolstering the ability of the National 
Archives and Records Administration to con-
duct its oversight authorities over the Depart-
ment and other Departments and agencies; and 
‘‘(C) ensuring that the policies and proce-
dures established by the Secretary remain con-
sistent with those established by the Archivist 
of the United States; 
‘‘(2) ensure that the program established under 
paragraph (1) includes at least one individual for 
each Department office with delegated original clas-
sification authority; and 
‘‘(3) in coordination with the Archivist of the 
United States, report to Congress not later than 90 
days after the conclusion of the first year of the pro-
gram established under paragraph (1), on—
‘‘(A) the advisability of expanding the pro-
gram on a government-wide basis, whereby 
other departments and agencies would send 
detailees to the National Archives and Records 
Administration; and 
‘‘(B) the administrative and monetary 
costs of full compliance with this section. 
‘‘(d) SUNSET OF DETAILEE PROGRAM.—Except as 
otherwise provided by law, subsection (c) shall cease to 
have effect on December 31, 2012. 
‘‘(e) 
FINISHED
INTELLIGENCE
PRODUCT
DE-
FINED.—The term ‘finished intelligence product’ has the 
meaning given the term in section 210F(c).’’. 
SEC. 5. TECHNICAL AMENDMENT. 
The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Homeland 
Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101(b)) is amended by 
adding after the item relating to section 210E the fol-
lowing new items: 
‘‘Sec. 210F. Over-classification prevention program. 
‘‘Sec. 210G. Enforcement of over-classification prevention programs.’’. 
Passed the House of Representatives February 3, 
2009. 
Attest: 
Clerk.
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 553 
AN ACT 
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to 
develop a strategy to prevent the over-classifica-
tion of homeland security and other information 
and to promote the sharing of unclassified home-
land security and other information, and for 
other purposes.