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Security Classification Policy and Procedure:
E.O. 12958, as Amended
Kevin R. Kosar
Analyst in American National Government
December 31, 2009
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
97-771
CRS Report for Congress
Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress
Security Classification Policy and Procedure: E.O. 12958, as Amended
Summary
Largely prescribed in a series of successive presidential executive orders issued over the past 50
years, security classification policy and procedure provide the rationale and arrangements for
designating information officially secret for reasons of national security, and for its
declassification as well. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the first executive order (E.O.
8381) in 1940.
Current security classification policy may be found in Executive Order 12958, which was signed
by President William Clinton on April 17, 1995. It “prescribes a uniform system for classifying,
safeguarding, and declassifying national security information.” As issued, E.O. 12958 declared,
“If there is significant doubt about the need to classify information, it shall not be classified.”
Additionally, the order stated “If there is significant doubt about the appropriate level of
classification, it shall be classified at the lower level.”
President George W. Bush amended Executive Order 12958 via Executive Order 13292 on March
25, 2003. E.O. 13292 made many changes to E.O. 12958, and eliminated both of the
aforementioned “significant doubt” provisions.
On May 27, 2009, President Barack Obama ordered a review of E.O. 12958. The assistant to the
President for National Security Affairs (commonly known as the National Security Advisor) is
required to submit to the President “recommendations and proposed revisions” to E.O. 12958
within 90 days.
President Obama signed an executive order on December 29, 2009, that revoked E.O. 12958 and
“prescribes a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security
information.” The order made a number of significant changes to current information policies,
such as (1) requiring the establishment of a National Declassification Center at the National
Archives; (2) ending the E.O. 13292 policy of empowering the Director of Central Intelligence to
block declassification actions; and (3) declaring that “no information may remain classified
indefinitely.” The President’s accompanying memorandum to agency heads orders that a
“backlog” of 400 million pages of records be made available to the public by December 31, 2013.
This report will not be updated.
Congressional Research Service
Security Classification Policy and Procedure: E.O. 12958, as Amended
Contents
Background ................................................................................................................................5
Clinton’s Executive Order 12958 As Issued.................................................................................6
Prescribing Declassification ..................................................................................................7
Controversial Areas...............................................................................................................8
Classification Challenges ...................................................................................................... 8
A Balancing Test ...................................................................................................................8
Program Direction.................................................................................................................8
New Organizations................................................................................................................9
Bush’s Amendments to E.O. 12958 ........................................................................................... 10
Obama’s Review of E.O. 12958 ................................................................................................ 10
Obama Revokes E.O. 12958 and Issues a New Executive Order ................................................ 11
Contacts
Author Contact Information ...................................................................................................... 12
Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................... 12
Congressional Research Service
Security Classification Policy and Procedure: E.O. 12958, as Amended
Background
Although formal armed forces information security orders had been in existence since 1869,
security classification arrangements assumed a presidential character in 1940. The reasons for this
late development are not entirely clear, but it probably was prompted by desires to clarify the
authority of civilian personnel in the national defense community to create official secrets, to
establish a broader basis for protecting military information in view of growing global hostilities,
and to better manage a discretionary power of increasing importance to the entire executive
branch.
Relying upon a 1938 statute concerning the security of armed forces installations and equipment
and “information relative thereto,”
1
Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the first presidential security
classification directive, E.O. 8381, in March 1940.
2
However, the legislative history of the statute
which the President relied upon to issue his order provided no indication that Congress
anticipated that such a security classification arrangement would be created.
Other executive orders followed. E.O. 10104, adding a fourth level of classified information,
aligned U.S. information security categories with those of our allies in 1950.
3
A 1951 directive,
E.O. 10290, completely overhauled the security classification program.
4
Information was now
classified in the interest of “national security” and classification authority was extended to non-
military agencies which presumably had a role in “national security” policy.
Criticism of the 1951 order prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to issue a replacement,
E.O. 10501, in November 1953.
5
This directive and later amendments to it, as well as E.O. 11652
of March 8, 1972, and E.O. 12065 of June 28, 1978, successively narrowed the bases and limited
discretion for assigning official secrecy to agency records.
6
President Ronald W. Reagan issued E.O. 12356 on April 2, 1982.
7
Quickly, it came under
criticism for reversing the limiting trend set by classification orders of the previous 30 years by
expanding the categories of classifiable information, mandating that information falling within
these categories be classified, making reclassification authority available, admonishing classifiers
to err on the side of classification, and eliminating automatic declassification arrangements.
52 Stat. 3.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Defining Certain Vital Military and Naval Installations and Equipment,” 5
Federal
Register
1147, March 26, 1940.
3
President Harry S Truman, “Defining Certain Vital Military and Naval Installations and Equipment as Requiring
Protection Against the General Dissemination of Information Relative Thereto,” 15
Federal Register
597, February 3,
1950.
4
President Harry S Truman, “Prescribing Regulations Establishing Minimum Standards for the Classification,
Transmission, and Handling, by Department and Agencies of the Executive Branch, of Official Information Which
Requires Safeguarding in the Interest of the Security of the United States,” 16
Federal Register
9795, September 27,
1951.
5
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Safeguarding Official Information in the Interests of the Defense of the United
States,” 18
Federal Register
7049, November 10, 1953.
6
President Richard M. Nixon, “Classification and Declassification of National Security Information and Material,” 37
Federal Register
5209, March 10, 1972; and President James E. Carter, “National Security Information,” 43
Federal
Register
28249, July 3, 1978.
7
President Ronald W. Reagan, “National Security Information,” 14
Federal Register
14874, April 6, 1982.
2
1
Congressional Research Service
5
Security Classification Policy and Procedure: E.O. 12958, as Amended
With the democratization of many Eastern European countries, the demise of the Soviet Union,
and the end of the Cold War, President William J. Clinton, shortly after his inauguration, initiated
a sweeping review of Cold War rules on security classification in general and of E.O. 12356 in
particular with a view to reform.
8
Many began to suspect that the security classification program could be improved when the
Department of Defense Security Review Commission, chaired by retired General Richard G.
Stilwell, declared in 1985 that there were “no verifiable figures as to the amount of classified
material produced in DoD and in defense industry each year.” Nonetheless, it was concluded that
“too much information appears to be classified and much at higher levels than is warranted.”
9
The cost of the security classification program became clearer when the General Accounting
Office (now Government Accountability Office) reported in October 1993 that it was “able to
identify government wide costs directly applicable to national security information totaling over
$350 million for 1992.” After breaking this figure down—it included only $6 million for
declassification work—the report added that “the U.S. government also spends additional billions
of dollars annually to safeguard information, personnel, and property.”
10
Established in April 1993, the President’s security classification task force transmitted its initial
draft order to the White House seven months later. Circulated among the departments and
agencies for comment, the proposal encountered strong opposition from officials within the
intelligence and defense communities.
11
More revision of the draft directive followed.
As delay in issuing the new order continued, some in Congress considered legislating a statutory
basis for classifying information in the spring of 1994.
12
In the fall, the President issued E.O.
12937 declassifying selected retired records at the National Archives.
13
After months of
unresolved conflict over designating an oversight and policy direction agency, a compromise
version of the order was given presidential approval in April 1995.
Clinton’s Executive Order 12958 As Issued
The Clinton order, as initially issued, authorizes the classification of information for reasons of
“national security,” which “means the national defense or foreign relations of the United
Tim Weiner, “President Moves to Release Classified U.S. Documents,”
New York Times,
May 5, 1993, p. A18.
U. S. Department of Defense, Department of Defense Security Review Commission,
Keeping The Nation’s Secrets
(Washington: GPO, 1985), pp. 48-49.
10
U. S. General Accounting Office,
Classified Information: Costs of Protection Are Integrated With Other Security
Costs,
GAO Report GAO/NSIAD-94-55 (Washington: October 1993), p. 1.
11
See David C. Morrison, “For Whose Eyes Only?,”
National Journal,
vol. 26, February 26, 1994, pp. 472-476; Tim
Weiner, “U.S. Plans Overhaul on Secrecy, Seeking to Open Millions of Files,”
New York Times,
March 18, 1994, pp.
A1, B6; and R. Jeffrey Smith, “CIA, Others Opposing White House Move to Bare Decades-Old Secrets,”
Washington
Post,
March 30, 1994, p. A14.
12
See U. S. Congress, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,
A Statutory Basis for Classifying
Information,
hearing, 103
rd
Cong., 2
nd
sess., March 16, 1994 (Washington: GPO, 1995).
9
8
President William J. Clinton, “Declassification of Selected Records within the National Archives of the United
States,” 59
Federal Register
59097, November 15, 1994, at http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/
pdf/12937.pdf.
13
Congressional Research Service
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