CLASSIFICATION AND DECLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION.

SEC. 701. CLASSIFICATION AND DECLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION. (a) In General.—Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the President shall, by Executive order, provide for the classification and declassification of information. It is the sense of Congress that the Executive order should provide for the following: (1) The qualification of information for classification only when its public disclosure would cause identifiable damage to the national security. (2) The declassification of information if the appropriate authority within the Executive branch determines that the Government's interest in continuing to protect such information is outweighed by the public's interest in having the information made available. (3) The automatic declassification of information that is more than 25 years old unless such information is within a category designated by the President as requiring document-by-document review to identify that information whose disclosure to unauthorized persons would clearly damage the national security. (b) Submission to Congress; Effective Date.—The Executive order referred to in subsection (a) may not take effect until after 30 days after the date on which such proposed Executive order is submitted to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Government Operations of the House of Representatives and the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate.