Declassification of Federal Records and the Establishment of the National Declassification Center
The modern classification system for Federal records was established in September 1951 when President Truman issued Executive Order 10290. This order formalized the definition Top Secret, Secret, Confidential, and Restricted levels, and set guidelines for how this information was protected. For this and subsequent Executive Orders, protecting “sensitive” information became the primary focus, with declassification addressed without any deadlines or oversight. In fact, declassification did not become a government priority until President Clinton issued Executive Order 12958 in 1995. This order set an automatic declassification date for classified Federal records and required agencies to identify specific records that were still classified. The emphasis on classification led to a system that was buried under a mountain of classified information. When the NDC was established, there was an estimated backlog of 400 million pages of classified information waiting at the National Archives for declassification review. In a push toward government transparency, President Obama established the National Declassification Center (NDC) in 2010 and directed all agencies to support the Center in the elimination of that backlog. The NDC led an interagency effort to fix the declassification process and successfully eliminated the backlog in 3 years. Interagency declassification efforts continue, ensuring that the people have full access to essential documents of the Federal government. Despite our successes, declassification continues to be a topic of interested with the public and Congress. Presenter bio: David Mengel is a graduate of James Madison University. He began his career at NARA in 1991 as an Archives Technician in the Records Declassification Division. After completing archival training, he worked as an archivist and team lead in the Records Declassification Division; an archivist in the Special Access and FOIA staff; the Mandatory Review Coordinator in the Office of Presidential Libraries; the supervisor for textual records and tapes review on Nixon Presidential Materials Staff; and Chief of the Special Access and FOIA Staff. During his career he supervised review of the Nixon White House Tapes, was one of three members of a NARA Panel established to determine if current technology could recover the 18 ½ minute gap, participated on a team established to review 9/11 Commission records for release in 2009, and worked as the project manager on the interagency team that re-designed declassification processes for the National Declassification Center. In 2022, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for a lifetime of achievement in furthering the mission of NARA by Archivist of the United States David Ferriero. He is currently Deputy Director of the National Declassification Center and the NARA Liaison to the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP).
The modern classification system for Federal records was established in September 1951 when President Truman issued Executive Order 10290. This order formalized the definition Top Secret, Secret, Confidential, and Restricted levels, and set guidelines for how this information was protected. For this and subsequent Executive Orders, protecting “sensitive” information became the primary focus, with declassification addressed without any deadlines or oversight. In fact, declassification did not become a government priority until President Clinton issued Executive Order 12958 in 1995. This order set an automatic declassification date for classified Federal records and required agencies to identify specific records that were still classified. The emphasis on classification led to a system that was buried under a mountain of classified information. When the NDC was established, there was an estimated backlog of 400 million pages of classified information waiting at the National Archives for declassification review. In a push toward government transparency, President Obama established the National Declassification Center (NDC) in 2010 and directed all agencies to support the Center in the elimination of that backlog. The NDC led an interagency effort to fix the declassification process and successfully eliminated the backlog in 3 years. Interagency declassification efforts continue, ensuring that the people have full access to essential documents of the Federal government. Despite our successes, declassification continues to be a topic of interested with the public and Congress. Presenter bio: David Mengel is a graduate of James Madison University. He began his career at NARA in 1991 as an Archives Technician in the Records Declassification Division. After completing archival training, he worked as an archivist and team lead in the Records Declassification Division; an archivist in the Special Access and FOIA staff; the Mandatory Review Coordinator in the Office of Presidential Libraries; the supervisor for textual records and tapes review on Nixon Presidential Materials Staff; and Chief of the Special Access and FOIA Staff. During his career he supervised review of the Nixon White House Tapes, was one of three members of a NARA Panel established to determine if current technology could recover the 18 ½ minute gap, participated on a team established to review 9/11 Commission records for release in 2009, and worked as the project manager on the interagency team that re-designed declassification processes for the National Declassification Center. In 2022, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for a lifetime of achievement in furthering the mission of NARA by Archivist of the United States David Ferriero. He is currently Deputy Director of the National Declassification Center and the NARA Liaison to the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP).