[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 10, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H5337-H5576]


        NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020

[...]

         amendment no. 110 offered by mr. cooper of tennessee

       Add at the end of subtitle H of title X the following new 
     section:

     SEC. 10__. REPORTS ON REDUCING THE BACKLOG IN LEGALLY 
                   REQUIRED HISTORICAL DECLASSIFICATION 
                   OBLIGATIONS.

       (a) Report.--Not later than 120 days after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, the 
     Secretary of State, and the Director of the Central 
     Intelligence Agency shall each submit to the appropriate 
     congressional committees a report detailing progress made by 
     the Secretary or the Director, as the case may be, toward 
     reducing the backlog in legally required historical 
     declassification obligations.
       (b) Elements.--Each report under subsection (a) shall 
     include the following:
       (1) A plan to achieve legally mandated historical 
     declassification requirements and reduce backlogs.
       (2) A plan to incorporate new technologies, such as 
     artificial intelligence, that would increase productivity and 
     reduce cost in implementing the plan under paragraph (1).
       (3) A detailed assessment of the documents released in each 
     of the proceeding three years before the date of the report, 
     broken out by program, such as the 25 and 50 year programs.
       (4) A detailed assessment of the documents awaiting review 
     for release and an estimate of how many documents will be 
     released in each of the next three years.
       (5) Potential policy, resource, and other options available 
     to the Secretary or the Director, as the case may be, to 
     reduce backlogs.
       (6) The progress and objectives of the Secretary or the 
     Director, as the case may be, with respect to the release of 
     documents for publication in the Foreign Relations of the 
     United States series or to facilitate the public 
     accessibility of such documents at the National Archives or 
     presidential libraries, or both.
       (c) Form and Availability.--Each report under subsection 
     (a) shall be submitted in unclassified form, which shall be 
     made publicly available, but may include a classified annex.
       (d) Appropriate Congressional Committees Defined.--In this 
     section, the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' 
     means--
       (1) the congressional defense committees;
       (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Permanent 
     Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of 
     Representatives; and
       (3) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Select 
     Committee on Intelligence of the Senate.

[...]

passed en bloc