§3355d Standards and Procedures

Summary

Each agency head who can classify information and each Federal Presidential library head must pick one employee to be the Board’s liaison. The Board can also work with other history or advisory groups it finds useful. If an agency or library decides to deny or limit the Board’s or the liaison’s access to records or materials, the agency or library must quickly tell the Board in writing and explain what records are affected and why. If the denial involves a special access program set up by the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, or another agency head, the notice must go to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs instead of the Board. When a declassification review ends, an agency head may decide to release still-classified records if the public interest outweighs the need to protect them, following Executive Order 13526 or its successor. The agency head may also decide to keep records secret if protection outweighs public access, also under that Executive Order. The Board must send an annual report about its work to the named congressional committees, including summary information about any denials. Notices and justifications for denials of special access programs must be sent to specific congressional committees named in the law. In response to a congressional request under section 3355a(b)(5), the Board will tell the requestor whether it plans to review the records.