Bills to Reign in Controlled Unclassified Information Fly through House
From OMB Watch:
A bill to reduce and standardize Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) designations moved quickly through the House in July, passing in both committee and on the House floor just a single week after it was introduced by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA). This bill, along with a similar piece of legislation that focuses solely on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), now goes to the Senate where it may have a tougher time given the limited amount of legislative time left in this congressional session.The Waxman-Davis bill, the Reducing Information Control Designations Act (H.R. 6576), gives new authority to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Under the bill, the Archivist of the United States must establish narrowly constructed standards for CUI designations that maximize public access to information as well as develop penalties for employees and contractors who repeatedly fail to comply. NARA is already the statutory designee for setting classification standards. The act also calls for random audits of unclassified information with control designations by the inspector general of each federal agency.