(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 
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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: 
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‘‘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-
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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-
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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-
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