Executive Order 13292
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Executive Order 13292 was an
executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of th ...
issued by
United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United State ...
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
on March 25, 2003, entitled "Further Amendment to
Executive Order 12958 Executive Order 12958 created new standards for the process of identifying and protecting classified information, and led to an unprecedented effort to declassify millions of pages from the U.S. diplomatic and national security history. In 1995, Un ...
, as Amended, Classified National Security Information." The Executive Order modified the manner in which sensitive information was handled at the time as set out by President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
's 1995 executive order.


Background

Clinton's order set declassification deadlines for classified material and made it harder for politicians to classify information. Bush's order appears to allow much more information to be classified and for longer periods; the wording is hard to decipher in some areas. It also appears to give more power over classification to the Offices of the President and Vice President, but the wording used was not properly defined in the listing of relevant definitions now consolidated into their own section in Part 6 of the Executive Order.


Changes from the 1995 regulations

Among the various changes made to the 1995-based regulations, Executive Order 13292 notably:CRS 97-771
''Security Classification Policy and Procedure: E.O. 12958, as Amended''
Congressional Research Service, by Kevin R. Kosar, 31 December 2009, p. 9 of 11 (PDF)
* eliminated the 1995-based order's standard that information should not be classified if there is “significant doubt” about the need to do so; * treated information obtained in confidence from foreign governments as classified; * authorized the Vice President, “in the performance of executive duties,” to classify information originally; * added “infrastructures” and “protection services” to the categories of classifiable information; * eased the reclassification of declassified records; * postponed the starting date for automatic declassification of protected records 25 or more years old from April 17, 2003, to December 31, 2006; * eliminated the requirement that agencies prepare plans for declassifying records; * canceled the order requiring the Archivist to create a “government wide database of information that has been declassified,” and instead requires the “Director of the Information Security Oversight Office ... ocoordinate the linkage and effective utilization of existing agency databases of records that have been declassified and publicly released”; and * permitted the Director of Central Intelligence to block declassification actions of the ISCAP, unless overruled by the President. A more extensive analysis of the changes from the previous executive order was compiled by the group
Public Citizen Public Citizen is a non-profit, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas. Lobbying efforts Public Citizen advocates before all three branches of the Unit ...
.''Changes in Classification Policy Imposed By the Bush Administration Executive Order''
''13292'', Public Citizen, BushSecrecy.org, 2003


Reactions

Then-
Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...
said in a February 15, 2006, interview, "There is an executive order that specifies who has classification authority, and obviously focuses first and foremost on the President, but also includes the Vice President." This was based in the then newly added but undefined and untested wording stipulating the Vice President's ability to exercise classification authority rested “in the performance of isexecutive duties,”.Part 1, Sec. 1.3(a)(1) & 1.3(c)(2)
Executive Order 13292 of March 25, 2003, ''Further Amendment to Executive Order 12958, as Amended, Classified National Security Information''
Federal Register - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Vol. 68, No. 60, 28 March 2003, p.15316.
The phrase no longer appears in Executive Order 13526 though the Vice President is directly listed rather than amended in separately via a standard Order.Part 1, Sec. 1.3(a)(1) & 1.3(c)(2)
Executive Order 13526 of December 29, 2009, ''Classified National Security Information''
Federal Register - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Vol. 75, No. 2, 5 January 2010, p.708.
Byron York Byron York (born December 5, 1955) is an American conservative correspondent, pundit, columnist, and author. Education York holds a B.A. from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and an M.A. from the University of Chicago. Career ...
of the ''
National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief i ...
'' noted, "Throughout Executive Order 13292, there are changes to the original Clinton order which, in effect, give the vice president the power of the president in dealing with classified material....Executive Order 13292 is further evidence of real power in the vice president's office."The Little-Noticed Order That Gave Dick Cheney New Power
a February 2006 ''
National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief i ...
'' article This analysis is contradicted by the supplemental Order of October 13, 1995 issued pursuant to Sec. 1.4 (a)(2) of President Clinton's Executive Order 12958 of April 17, 1995 declaring the Vice President as a designated official with the same ability to originate classified information at the highest level, "Top Secret", and by design - the lower-levels and further delegations by default, as if named directly in the original Executive Order pursuant to the clause directly preceding it ec. 1.4(a)(1) The subsequent revisions to the regulations governing Classified National Security Information practices by both Presidents Bush and Obama differed from EO 12958 in that they declared the Vice President directly in their original issuances rather than in a supplemental Order as President Clinton had.Part 1, Sec. 1.4(a)(1) & (2)
Executive Order 12958 of April 17, 1995, ''Classified National Security Information''
Federal Register - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Vol. 60, No. 76, 20 April 1995, p.19827.
Order of October 13, 1995, ''National Security Information''
Federal Register - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Vol. 60, No. 200, 17 October 1995, p.53845.
Order of December 29, 2009, ''Original Classification Authority''
Federal Register - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Vol. 75, No. 2, 5 January 2010, p.735.


Repealment

Executive Order 12958 and the amendments incorporated into it, including Executive Order 13292, were revoked by President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
in the issuance of
Executive Order 13526 Executive Order 13526 was issued on December 29, 2009, by United States President Barack Obama.
.


References

{{reflist, 2


External links


Further Amendment to Executive Order 12958, As Amended, Classified National Security Information
''
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
'', March 25, 2003 13292 2003 in American law United States government secrecy Classified information in the United States