Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Hearing on Proposed Declassification Reform
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Location: Senate Dirksen Room G-50 and via WEBEX
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Congressman John F. Tierney Remarks
Member of the Public Interest Declassification Board
Good afternoon Acting Chairman Rubio, Vice Chairman Warner, and
members of the Committee. Thank you for the invitation to testify on the
important but usually neglected issue of modernizing the Government’s
national security classification and declassification system. I would also like
to thank the Committee staff for their assistance making it possible for me to
appear before the Committee by video. I am speaking to you today as a
member of the Public Interest Declassification Board, the “PIDB,” and my
remarks reflect the views of our members. Our staff previously provided a
more detailed prepared statement to the Committee staff.
Congress recognized the critical importance of declassification in our
democracy and in our nation’s security when it created the PIDB in 2000. It
recognized the role the PIDB can and should play in improving the health of
our national security classification and declassification system by making
recommendations for reform.
We are gratified for Senators Moran and Wyden cosponsoring and
introducing “The Declassification Reform Act of 2020.” This proposed
legislation includes many recommendations from our recent report to the
President, A Vision for the Digital Age: Modernization of the U.S.
Classification and Declassification System.

1

We are also grateful for the Congress passing and the President signing
legislation last year permanently authorizing the PIDB and look forward to
continuing our advocacy on the imperative to modernize today’s antiquated
classification and declassification system.
We have written five reports to the President over the past 12 years. Each
report documented challenges facing the government and recommended new
policies to address them. Modernization of the classification and
declassification system is an imperative. It is a necessity for our national
security and our democracy to operate effectively in the digital age.
Since issuing our first report in 2008, the government has made little
progress. It has not invested nor integrated information technology into
classification and declassification processes. We purposefully designed our
most recent report to serve as a road map for the government to overcome
collective and individual agency inaction, to harness uncoordinated efforts by
a few individual agencies, and integrate them into a government-wide
solution.
We stressed the critical importance of sustained leadership in driving change
by having a senior-level Executive Agent oversee implementation of reforms.
We felt an integrated federated systems approach would ensure
interoperability, allow for effective use of advanced technologies, and lead to
solutions for declassifying large volumes of digital data.
Our recommendations align with the administration’s Information
Technology modernization and Artificial Intelligence strategies, and its
efforts to integrate IT across agencies to improve performance and reduce
costs. They align with the DNI’s 2019 National Intelligence Strategy “to do
things differently,” and the National Solarium’s recommendation to “reform
the U.S. Government’s structure and operations for cyberspace.”
There is widespread agreement that the declassification system is at a
breaking point. It simply cannot effectively handle the volume of digital data
2

generated each day. It cannot handle the volume of records requiring
declassification review. Declassification processes remain much the same
from when they were first developed in the Truman administration in an era
when secrets were created on paper and secured in safes. Without reform, it
will be far worse in the future.
I will share one example. In 2012, we learned that one intelligence agency
estimated it created approximately 1 petabyte of classified data every 18
months. That is equivalent to approximately 1 trillion pieces of paper. This
agency estimated that, using current manual declassification review
processes, it would take two million employees one year to review this
volume of information. That was one agency 8 years ago. The problem has
undoubtedly grown exponentially since 2012.
Just as the declassification system is about to collapse, over-classification is
getting worse and harming current government national security operations.
Recently, LTG James Dickinson, the President’s nominee to lead the U.S.
Space Command, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that
over-classification was “making it more difficult for us to support the
warfighter.” In this example, over-classification not only affects operations
and missions. But it can lead to costly duplication of space systems, limit
innovation, diminish private sector support and reduce development of new
technologies on projects that could aid U.S. space dominance.
Agencies must re-evaluate the needs of their customers to maximize their
support. For example, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
created a Consolidated Security Classification Guide, called “CoNGA.” It is
integrated into NGA work processes, uses advanced technology to automate
classification decisions, and ensures decisions align with mission and
customer needs.
Policy modernization, interagency integration, and technology use are critical
to the security of our nation. Technologies such as artificial intelligence and
Machine Learning are revolutionizing operations. Specific tools and
3

technology solutions exist at agencies now. They can and must be used to
revolutionize the management of classified data.
Agency programs currently operate independently in a silo. They are
duplicative and only focus on identifying and reviewing their equity
information. Many lack the ability to communicate securely with each other,
including the National Declassification Center. This leads to added costs and
reduced efficiency as agencies duplicate processes.
We recommend an Executive Agent to oversee declassification reform and
integrate it into a federated system. First, the EA has the authority to oversee
implementation of new policies and processes across agencies, including
developing precise declassification guidance and metadata standards that can
be used across agencies. The EA has authority to direct and organize research
into advanced technology solutions, ensure its interoperability across the
federated enterprise system, and coordinate technology acquisition.
We believe the ODNI is strategically empowered to take on the coordination
role as Executive Agent. ODNI has the experience. It overcame bureaucratic
roadblocks and integrated the 17 organizations that comprise the IC.
ODNI is a proven leader in developing, implementing, and managing
technological solutions and acquisitions to support missions and operations
across agencies. It led the development and deployment of the Intelligence
Community Information Technology Enterprise (ICITE) and manages the
Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System.
ODNI is a leader in overseeing and managing research in advanced
information technology, artificial intelligence, and other machine-learning
technologies. It can leverage expertise of the Intelligence Advanced Research
Projects Agency, National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency,
other IC agencies, and In-Q-Tel and other private sector partners.

4

Lastly, the DNI has the stature to bring about change. The 2019 National
Intelligence Strategy recognized the DNI’s leadership role in getting the
government “to do things differently” by “increasing integration and
coordination,” “bolstering innovation,” and “increasing transparency.”
We felt the ODNI was the clear choice to serve as the Executive Agent.
ODNI’s leadership in establishing a common IT architecture can also provide
opportunities to gain efficiencies, better support missions, and increase cost
savings by expanding the common IT infrastructure, processes, and data
strategy already in place to improve classification and declassification.
We are at the precipice. The declassification system can no longer keep pace
with the volume of paper records created 25 years ago and the exponential
growth of digital data will cause it to collapse without radical change. The
impact of a failure to reform the declassification and classification system
will be felt widely - on our democracy and on our national security.
We have authored five reports offering recommendations and possible
solutions to this challenge. However, they have yet not led to a coordinated
government effort to radically rethink what classification and declassification
mean in the digital age, how it impacts our national security and how it
impacts our democracy.
Our Board remains hopeful that change is coming.
The President signed Senate Bill 1790 last year. It required the Department of
Defense to report to the Congress on its plan to integrate advanced
technologies into declassification processes and what it is doing to reduce
declassification backlogs.
There is also unanimity among all stakeholders that this system will not work
in the digital age. I appreciate the ODNI representative’s statement that the
system is outdated. Recognizing that there is a problem is a step forward.
5

We support Senator Moran’s and Senator Wyden’s recently proposed
legislation to modernize declassification. And we are grateful for this
committee to host a hearing on this issue. They are also important step
forward.
These are important steps that will lead to reform. The government is already
modernizing information technology policies and practices. It is reforming
acquisition policies and practices for efficiency and reduced costs. It is
integrating the use of advanced technology across agencies to address
mission imperatives.
Adopting the recommendations in our Vision report – either within the
Executive branch or through legislation – are the next steps. Appointing the
DNI as the Executive Agent will bring needed experience and expertise. It
will facilitate development of a federated systems approach across agencies.
It will facilitate the integration of advanced information technology into new
classification and declassification processes.
Let me express my appreciation to the Committee for addressing this esoteric
yet critically important topic. Modernizing the classification and
declassification system is important for our 21st century national security and
it is important for transparency and our democracy.
The time for action is now. The government must move beyond saying, “it is
too costly” or saying, “some other agency should be responsible.” Instead, the
roadmap in our report offers opportunities for reform. It offers possible
solutions the government to engage with stakeholders to truly address this
challenge, identify solutions, and implement them.
Thank you for your interest and your support. I look forward to answering
your questions and continuing this discussion.

6