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Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, years ago, we realized the government's failure to keep up with the amount of classified information is outdated; it is insufficient; and it is costly.

It is important to improve our broken classification system to reduce costs, eliminate years of backlog, and create a more efficient system. But I now recognize there is another reason to do this beyond just the efficiency of good government. We now know, also, it is making our country more vulnerable.

The disclosure of classified information threatens our country's security, diminishes the safety of our military, and damages our relationships with our allies.

We are so overwhelmed protecting outdated documents that we have failed to meet the basic purpose of our classification system: protect classified information from bad actors.

In the past year, our Nation experienced a number of harmful incidents relating to how classified information has been handled. Last year, we learned that classified information was improperly in the possession of the President, the former President, and the former Vice President.

Last month, our Nation became aware of a number of documents allegedly leaked by a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman trying to impress his video game buddies.

Regarding the latest leaks and the constant reporting streaming from them, I am mystified that such a person could have such broad access to some of our Nation's most sensitive information.

The alleged leaker had a known history of threatening violence and a record that did not permit him to obtain a gun. How could he be trusted with a top security clearance?

To protect the security of the United States, it is necessary for Congress to understand how these episodes happened, ascertain the damage that has been inflicted, and work to reduce the likelihood of them ever happening again.

We must also overhaul how records are handled and who has access to them. I want to highlight the enormous amount of classified information that is already in the government's possession. In this digital era, the Federal Government is classifying more information than our current analog declassification efforts can meet.

We are increasingly finding that information which should no longer be classified, including historical records subject to mandatory declassification, remain classified because the system is just simply overwhelmed.

This comes at a cost of good governance: American taxpayers spend $18 billion a year--$18 billion a year--on this broken system, and it prevents transparency, costly and not good government, citizens without information.

When there are no compelling national security reasons to justify records remaining classified, public trust in government is undermined.

Senator Wyden, the Senator from Oregon, and I have attempted to address this growing problem by introducing the Declassification Reform Act in the previous two Congresses.

Following the recommendations of the Public Interest Declassification Board, we sought to designate the Director of National Intelligence as the official responsible to oversee an intelligence community-wide reform so that we don't fall further and further and further behind.

The intelligence community recognizes the urgency of reforming the classification system. However, it remains a question of who is in charge of this process. An executive agent is necessary. The Declassification Reform Act establishes a working fund for Agencies to utilize.

Our legislation doesn't resolve every problem associated with how government classifies and declassifies information. Too much information is classified, and administrations from both parties have allowed political considerations to interfere in the declassification process. But when records no longer require classification, neither disagreements about national security nor politics are to blame. It is an out-of-date system that is in need of leadership--leadership to reform it.

A modernized declassification system will help eliminate years of backlog and create more efficiency and greater transparency.

Modernizing our system would also apply to the process of tracking records that are supposed to remain classified so that we can better keep them secure, which is now the top priority for why we must immediately address this issue.

We live in a very dangerous world. And information that is classified and should be classified should not be shared with others. And yet we saw that happen just last month. Sensitive information that must remain classified must be protected from carelessness or maliciousness. Yet the records that no longer need to remain classified should be made available in a timely fashion.

I serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee. I look forward to introducing legislation with Senator Warner as chairman, Senator Cornyn and Senator Wyden, other members of that committee, to introduce legislation in the coming days to further address this issue.

I also welcome the opportunity to work with my colleagues, both on the committee and in this Chamber, to advance this debate and reach solutions to improve an out-of-date declassification system and better protect our national security, the challenges we face in this country and around the world. Now is not the time for us to look the other way. We can do better, and we need to head down that path quickly.

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