Sunday, October 28, 2012

The NATIONAL DECLASSIFICATION CENTER


THE NATIONAL DECLASSIFICATION CENTER


Releasing All We Can, Protecting What We Must 1

 National Declassification Center Prioritization Plan

I. Background

On 29 December 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13526 (E.O. 13526), creating the National Declassification Center (NDC) under the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and a memo entitled “Implementation of the Executive Order, Classified National Security Information.” The following day Archivist of the United States David Ferriero established the NDC to achieve the goals of ensuring that records are reviewed in a timely and efficiently, and making these records available to the public. Once established, the Acting NDC Director began developing a prioritization plan, in compliance with section 3.7(d) of E.O. 13526, for the declassification review and public release of classified records held by NARA. The plan incorporates the interests of NARA’s customers, to include researchers, the general public, the media and Federal agencies, and the Public Interest Declassification Board’s (PIDB)1 recommendation that records of high public interest receive declassification priority. The NDC Director will use the plan to prioritize declassification, and the adjudication of referrals in the Interagency Referral Center (IRC)2 and the Remote Archives Capture (RAC)3 programs.

The plan was developed to ensure that declassification resources are applied in a thorough and consistent manner, while focusing on those records of the highest public interest.

II. Prioritization Method

To achieve the NDC goal of making declassified records available to the public, three factors affect how records will be prioritized:

1) High Public Interest – The NDC will use a variety of sources, including public input through a variety of social media technologies, and information about records requested in the NARA research rooms, and by the public through the Freedom of Information Act, the Presidential Records Act and Mandatory Declassification Review provisions of E.O. 135264, to determine the level of public interest.

2) Likelihood of Declassification – Factors include complexity of information, volume of tabs (exemptions, exclusions, referrals) and age of material. There are a number of lower level classified records which may lend themselves to quick turnaround, while other records contain classified information that must be protected under E.O. 13526 and will not result in significant public release.

3) Resources Required to Complete Declassification – Some Record Groups (RGs) are have information that must be protected under the provisions established in E.O. 13526, and contain multiple referrals to other equity agencies. Addressing interagency referrals is labor intensive for the NDC and the agencies in the current process. Performing declassification is more difficult on records with multiple referrals and would slow down the process. Researcher interest would determine how these records fit into the prioritization plan.


To apply these criteria to classified records and develop a balanced plan, the NDC developed a matrix that places classified records in one of four categories. The categories are illustrated on a four quadrant diagram (figure 1). Figure 1
High Public Interest
1
2
Easy
Difficult
3
4
Low Public Interest


The following definitions were applied to each axis:

• The horizontal axis represents the likelihood of declassification and the level of effort required to move records through the NDC to the open shelf. o Records determined to be “Easy” have few referrals and/or have a high probability of declassification.
o Records determined to be “Difficult” contain multiple referrals and/or have most of the documents exempted under E.O. 13526.

• The vertical axis shows the level of public interest in the declassification of the records (as defined above).

Using these definitions each category (quadrant on Figure 1) was then defined as:

• Category 1 (High Interest, Easy to process) – 1% of the backlog
• Category 2 (High Interest, Difficult to process) – 90% of the backlog of Federal records and 100% of Presidential materials referred through the RAC.
• Category 3 (Low Interest, Easy to process) – 2% of the backlog
• Category 4 (Low Interest, Difficult to process) – 7% of the backlog

Initially the NDC will devote the majority of resources to the records in categories 1 and 2, with fewer resources devoted to categories 3 and 4.

Using this matrix model, NDC placed the classified record groups (RG) and Presidential materials into one of the four categories. Each RG will be further subdivided to place each series or collection into one of the four categories (see Appendix A). The NDC will use this information to prioritize review of records in the RAC system and the IRC, and to develop work plans that will focus on the highest priority records for declassification review and release. In preparation for discussions with agency partners and the public, the NDC, in coordination with the Office of Presidential Libraries, developed the following draft prioritization plan:

III. Prioritization Plan

Within the NDC there will be two separate workflows:

• Quality Assurance review and release of the eligible material within the 408 million page backlog of Federal records cited in the President’s Memo5;
• Declassification review and release of interagency referrals of eligible Federal records through the IRC, and Presidential records referred through the RAC.

5 In section 2 of the President’s memo he states “Under the direction of the National Declassification

Declassification Review and Interagency Referrals

By analyzing the goals and deadlines for each of these processes the NDC has determined that - for Federal records - the primary focus must be eliminating the backlog. For Federal records, the processing of interagency Federal referrals will be a secondary focus. This approach will make the largest volume of declassified records available to the public in the shortest period of time. The NDC will concentrate the majority of the declassification review resources on Federal records that fall into categories one and two of the prioritization plan, with fewer resources utilized on categories three and four.

A similar analysis of approaches to declassification of interagency referrals, led to the conclusion that the primary focus for these materials must be processing of interagency referrals. The priority for interagency referrals will be the high interest Presidential records in the RAC.

Using input from reference archivists at Archives II and the Office of Presidential Libraries, the chart below outlines the top priorities for the backlog and interagency referrals. Backlog Priorities
(Federal Records)
Interagency Referral Priorities
(Presidential and Federal Records)
Category 1 Records
Presidential Referrals through RAC


Category 2 Records: High Interest RGs that
account for 2/3 of records pulled for
researchers at Archives II:
• Department of State
o RG 59 – General Records of the Department of State
o RG 84 – Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State
• RG 306 – Records of the U.S. Information Agency
• RG 19 – Records of the Bureau of Ships
• Army (Units in WWII, Korea and Vietnam)
o RG 407 – Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1917
o RG 472 – Records of the U.S. Forces in Southeast Asia, 1950-1975
• RG 226 – Records of the Office of Strategic Services
• High level military records
o RG 218 – Records of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
o RG 319 – Records of the Army Staff
o RG 330 – Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense
o RG 338 – Records of U.S. Army Operational, Tactical, and Support Organizations
o RG 342 – Records of U.S. Air Force Commands, Activities, and Organizations

Category 3 Records
Category 4 Records

• Harry S Truman - Remaining Backlog of Referrals
• Dwight D. Eisenhower - Remaining Backlog of Referrals
• John F. Kennedy – National Security Files
• Lyndon Baines Johnson – National Security Files
• Richard Nixon o Erlichman and Haldeman Staff Member Office Files
o President’s Office File
o Latin American Country Files

• Gerald R. Ford – National Security Files
• Jimmy Carter o Brzezinski Materials
o Jimmy Carter Presidential – President’s Files – Staff Secretary’s File
o NSC Institutional Files, 1977-81
o Donated Historical Material – Mondale, Walter F.

• Kissinger Collection Scanned at the Library of Congress - Materials related to China

Federal Record Referrals
• Federal Records in the IRC


The annual goals and resource allocations for processing and review of Federal and Presidential records in the NDC will be approved by the NDC Director in consultation with Office of Presidential Libraries, NDC management, agencies participating in the NDC, and the public. The NDC Director will provide each agency with a list of NDC priorities to guide their declassification work planning, the volume of Federal and Presidential records in their review queues under the NDC, and review deadlines for records under the NDC. Agencies will be expected to provide a sufficient number of reviewers to meet established NDC goals, or accept automatic declassification of their equities as outlined in E.O. 13526.

This plan sets the priorities for the remainder of the current and next fiscal years. NDC priorities will be updated at three year intervals, or as needed based on changing priorities and workloads.



IV. Public Input

The NDC is committed to focusing our efforts on those records determined to be of high public interest. Draft prioritization plans will be created using NARA experts to identify which records are of high pubic interest. To ensure NDC prioritization plans meet the needs of the public, the NDC Director in conjunction with the Office of Presidential Libraries will solicit public input through a series of programs using social media tools and town hall meetings. Draft plans will be made available on the NDC website, and distributed to archival, historical (both Federal and non-Federal), and public interest groups through e-mail, and other social media tools. The NDC will utilize blogs and public forums to collect input on draft plans. The NDC Director will consolidate all input to create a final version of the plan, and establish milestones. The final plan, milestones and quarterly progress reports will be available to the public on the NDC website.

The NDC will update prioritization plans as high priority records are declassified and priorities change. We will continue to use social media tools to encourage and collect public input for future updates. Through these efforts we will maintain a plan that strives to meet the expectations of the public and the President’s vision for an interagency National Declassification Center.

1 The Public Interest Declassification Board is an advisory committee established by Congress in order to promote the fullest possible public access to a thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of significant U.S. national security decisions and activities.
2 The Interagency Referral Center was developed in 2006 by NARA as part of the National Declassification Initiative (NDI). The IRC was a voluntary program that consolidated review and referral (information within a document that is potentially classified by another agency) of Federal records in NARA custody into one central location within the National Archives at College Park. The IRC is now mandatory and part of the NDC.
3 The Remote Archives Capture Program was established in 1996 as a joint effort between the Presidential Libraries and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to facilitate declassification review and referral of classified Presidential papers in remote locations. This program digitally scans remotely located Presidential classified records and makes all twenty-five year old classified materials available electronically for declassification review in a centralized location in the Washington, DC area.
4 Researchers may submit FOIA and MDR requests for records at NARA that are not yet available to the public.
5 In section 2 of the President’s memo he states “Under the direction of the National Declassification Center (NDC), and utilizing recommendations of an ongoing Business Process Review in support of the NDC, referrals and quality assurance problems within a backlog of more than 400 million pages of accessioned Federal records previously subject to automatic declassification shall be addressed in a manner that will permit public access to all declassified records from this backlog no later than December 31, 2013.”

6 Appendix A – Breakdown of NARA Federal RGs into Categories

Category 1 Record Groups (High Interest, Easy to Process) RG
Title
Entries
Volume
24
Bureau of Navy Personnel (Deck Logs)
14
57
107
Secretary of War
1
1
153
JAG (Army)
13
94
160
U.S. Army Service Forces (WWII)
3
3
226
Office of Strategic Services
12
13
260
U.S. Occupation Headquarters, WWII
4
8
263
Central Intelligence Agency
23
178
272
Kennedy Assassination Commission
1
1
273
National Security Counsel
37
334
304
Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization
2
18
331
Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters WWII
24
11
332
U.S. Theaters of War, WWII
4
5
336
Chief, Transportation
42
429
337
HQ, Army Ground Forces
53
133
359
Office of Science and Technology
22
878
472
U.S Forces in Southeast Asia
59
121
494
U.S. Army Forces in the Middle Pacific (WWII)
1
1
500
U.S. Army Major Operational and Tactical Formations (WWII and after)
1
1
2,286 cuft

Category 2 Record Groups (High Interest, Difficult to Process) RG
Title
Entries
Volume
19
Bureau of Ships
393
4851
38
Chief of Naval Operations
405
5631
43
International Conferences, Commissions and Expositions
23
73
59
State Department
1273
9434
60
Department of Justice
1930
7044
65
Federal Bureau of Investigation
104
2073
72
Bureau of Aeronautics
82
8393
74
Bureau of Ordnance
34
4578
77
Chief of Engineers
121
603
84
Foreign Service Posts
1122
8152
92
Quartermaster General
21
143
111
Chief Signal Officer
88
697
127
United States Marine Corps
149
1313
156
Chief of Ordnance
148
1739
159
Inspector General (Army)
21
30
175
Chemical Warfare Service
17
139
181
Naval Districts and Shore Establishments
82
855
204
Pardon Attorney
1
2
218
Joint Chiefs of Staff
179
3918
255
National Aeronautics and Space Admin.
7
1346
266
Securities and Exchange Commission
1
31
285
Commerce Records Relating to International Commercial Operations (see RG 489)
6
145
286
U.S. Agency for International Development
945
7937
298
Office of Naval Research
130
645
306
U.S. Information Agency
212
1276
313
Naval Operating Forces
766
7560
319
Army Staff
1741
17372
326
Atomic Energy Commission
88
1322
330
Office of the Secretary of Defense
1299
7222
335
Office of the Secretary of the Army
84
1030
338
U.S. Army Operational, Tactical and Support Organizations
1927
2943
340
Office of the Secretary of the Air Force
171
2784
341
HQ U.S. Air Force (Air Staff)
670
6971
342
U.S. Air Force Commands, Activities, and Organizations
581
8866

343
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)
446
7349
344
Naval Ship Systems Command (NAVSEA)
420
6653
349
Joint Commands
67
101
373
Defense Intelligence Agency
119
662
383
U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
89
321
402
Bureau of Naval Weapons
150
4626
407
Records of the Adjutant General’s Office
47
292
428
General Records of the Department of the Navy
139
1175
429
Records of Organizations in Executive Office of the President (Federal Records)
32
370
430
Energy Research and Development Agency
2
5
434
Department of Energy
4
114
449
Independent Counsels
189
1707
460
Watergate Special Prosecution Force
2
4
518
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM)
128
430
529
U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM)
9
3
530
U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)
4
4
531
U.S. European Command (EUCOM)
39
333
549
U.S. Army, Europe (USAREUR)
49
208
550
U.S. Army, Pacific (USARPAC)
86
318
151,793 cuft


Category 3 Record Groups (Low Interest, Easy to Process) RG




Title


Entries
Volume
15
Veterans Affairs
1
4
21
District Courts
1
1
31
Federal Housing Administration
1
5
37
Hydrographic Office
3
103
39
Bureau of Accounts (Treasury)
1
7
40
Commerce
65
383
48
Interior
5
11
50
Treasurer of the U.S.
1
1
57
U.S. Geological Survey
1
24
64
National Archives and Records Administration
7
26
70
Bureau of Mines
1
1
80
General Records of the Department of the Navy
2
9
85
Immigration and Naturalization Service
14
235
87
Secret Service
5
30
90
Public Health Service
2
2
118
United States Attorneys
3
227
125
Judge Advocate General (Navy)
11
25
131
Office of Alien Property
2
1
143
Bureau of Supplies and Accounts
1
17
151
Bureau of Forei1gn and Domestic Commerce
83
164
166
Foreign Agricultural Service
5
14
167
National Institute of Standards and Technology
5
10
168
National Guard Bureau
1
1
173
Federal Communications Commission
3
14
174
Department of Labor
9
9
185
Panama Canal
2
24
197
Civil Aeronautics Board
6
30
203
Chief of Finance (Army)
5
10
216
Office of Censorship
2
3
220
Temporary Committees, Commissions and Boards
18
91
227
Office of Scientific Research and Development
1
1
237
Federal Aviation Administration
19
190
242
Collection of Foreign Records Seized
5
7
257
Bureau of Labor Statistics


303
National Council on Marine Resources and Engineering Development
1
5
307
National Science Foundation
1
1
311
Records of the FEMA
2
9
333
International Military Agencies
47
288
361
Records of the Defense Logistics Agency
2
7
368
Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service
1
1
375
Bureau of Economic Analysis
6
8
377
U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration
1
2
378
Economic Development Administration
2
1
389
Provost Marshal General
1
1
396
Office of Emergency Preparedness
6
14
406
Federal Highway Administration
1
1
412
Records of the Environmental Protection Agency
1
9
417
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
15
104
420
Records of the Overseas Private Investment Corp.
7
56
425
Financial Management Service
1
19
432
Economic Stabilization Programs
1
1
469
U.S. Foreign Assistance Agencies
16
91
489
International Trade Administration
13
46
490
Peace Corps
10
45
509
Department of Defense Inspector General
6
29
2,422


Category 4 Record Groups (Low Interest, Difficult to Process) RG
Title
Entries
Volume
51
Office of Management and Budget
68
330
56
Department of the Treasury
166
1118
71
Bureau of Yards and Docks
17
201
112
Records of the Surgeon General (Army)
67
697
287
Publications of the U.S. Government
1
4
289
Naval Intelligence Command
46
369
291
Federal Property Resources Service
1
53
333
International Military Agencies
47
288
334
Interservice Agencies
319
600
345
Naval Electronic Systems Command (NAVELEX)
72
394
346
Naval Ordinance Systems Command (NAVORD)
23
385
347
Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP)
5
11
353
Interdepartmental and Intradepartmental Committees (State)
8
88
357
Maritime Administration (MARAD)
6
39
364
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
18
260
371
Defense Information Systems Agency
209
702
374
Defense Nuclear Agency/ Defense Threat Reduction Agency
157
1225
384
Chief of Naval Material (NAVMAT)
30
85
385
Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC)
2
11
411
General Accounting Office
2
1
456
Defense Mapping Agency
166
814
476
Bureau of Export Administration
116
498
526
Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS)
5
36
544
U.S. Army Material Command
555
1702
546
Continental Army Command (CONARC) (modern)
124
542
547
U.S. Army Forces in Alaska
10
34
548
U.S. Army Forces in the Caribbean
35
58
551
U.S. Army Military District of Washington (MDW)
3
3
552
Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC)
14
18
553
U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC)
30
66
554
General HQs, Far East Command, Supreme Commander Allied Powers, & United Nations Command (FECOM, SCAP, UNC)
185
803
555
U.S. Army Forces Command (FORCECOM)
4
4
11,439 cuft

END