§2426 Congressional Oversight of Special Access Programs

Summary

By February 1 each year, the Administrator must send the congressional defense committees a report about the Administration’s special access programs. The report must list the total amount requested in the President’s next-year budget and, for each program, give a short description, the main milestones, the actual costs for each past year the program ran (up to the year before the budget year), and the estimated total cost plus cost estimates for the current fiscal year, the budget year, and each of the four years after that. Each year the Administrator must also report any newly designated special access programs, explain why they were given that status, give a current total cost estimate, and say what existing programs or technologies are similar. (A “new special access program” means one not previously reported this way.) If a program’s classification will change or be declassified, the Administrator must tell the committees what change is planned, why, and any planned public announcement, normally at least 14 days before the change. If the rule for what counts as a special access program is changed or ended, the Administrator must promptly notify the committees and explain the reasons and the new policy. The Administrator can withhold required report details or the 30-day waiting rule if revealing them would harm national security, but then must give the withheld information and the reason for the waiver to the chair and ranking member of each defense committee. No new special access program may start until the committees are told and 30 days have passed.