国会记录:2004年7月20日(Extensions) Page E1431 H.R. 4855 ______简介阿拉巴马州众议员小罗伯特·e·(BUD)克莱默议长先生，昨天我和爱荷华州的Boswell先生一起作了介绍立法成立独立的国家安全分类委员会，审查为国家安全目的对信息进行分类的现行标准和程序，并就必要的修改提出建议。今天的分类系统已经崩溃。行政部门几乎完全控制什么应该分类，什么不应该分类。系统中没有自我纠正机制。行政部门有一个鲜为人知的组织可以审查分类问题，但它很少被使用，而且只对行政部门员工开放，而不对国会议员或公众开放。金博宝正规网址底线是:行政部门对分类决定没有独立的审查。由于没有机会进行公正的审查，分类决定随时可能被滥用。想要隐藏自己的缺点的机构和想要表达政治观点的两党政客都可以滥用现有的分类准则来为自己牟利。这种情况需要改变。信息安全办公室主任威廉·伦纳德(William Leonard)在最近的一次演讲中承认，国家安全的分类系统已经失去了基础; that some agencies don't know how much information they classify, or whether they are classifying more or less than they once did; whether they are classifying too much or too little. He called today's classification system ``a patchwork quilt'' that is the result of a hodgepodge of laws, regulations and directives. ``In reality,'' he said ``the Federal Government has so many varieties of classification that it can make Heinz look modest . . .'' The most recent evidence that the system is broken can be found in the forthcoming 9-11 Commission report and last week's Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Iraq pre-war intelligence. But the problems of declassification also plagued the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001, on which Mr. Boswell and I both served. All of these reports show the problems that arise from a ``need to know'' rather than a ``need to share'' culture of overclassification. Even more important than the information that is published in these reports is the information withheld from the public and redacted from the reports. These reports demonstrate a serious imbalance of power between the public and the officials who make the classification decisions. They raise troubling questions about whether those who control the classification of information for national security purposes have misused this authority to shield officials from the glare of public accountability and to stifle public debate about politically sensitive parts of the war on terrorism. This legislation establishes an Independent National Security Classification Board. The Board would be made up of three individuals, knowledgeable in national security classification, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The task of the Independent Board would be to review and make recommendations on overhauling the standards and process used in the classification system for national security information. The Board would submit proposed new standards and processes to both Congress and the Executive Branch for comment and revision, and then implement the new standards and process once they have had the opportunity to comment. The Board would then begin to implement the new system, reviewing and making recommendations on current and new national security classifications, subject to Executive Branch veto that must be accompanied by a public, written explanation. The balance in this proposal assures that the public and Congress have access to an independent Board for national security classification matters while leaving undisturbed the Commander in Chief's constitutional prerogative in military and foreign policy matters through the power to appoint the Board and to veto the Board's classification decisions. This bill was introduced in the Senate by a bipartisan group of Senators and it is our hope that this bill will attract bipartisan support in the House. However, with so little time left in the legislative session and in recognition of the importance of these issues, Mr. Boswell and I, both members of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, felt it was important to get this bill into the process now. I urge Members to support this bill. ____________________