OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING:

The yearlong review marks the first such attempt to rein in the classification system in more than a decade, after what insiders and oversight authorities say has been frustratingly little progress since the Obama administration took on the task.

The National Archives and Records Administration estimates that government agencies create petabytes -- or millions of gigabytes -- of classified information each year, a trend that has only increased in the decades since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States led already tight-lipped agencies to clamp down more.

Tens of billions of dollars are spent on classifying information, while only a fraction is dedicated to declassifying information.

"We believe there is immense potential to improve government efficiency and transparency simultaneously within this effort," stated an internal June 2 memo from Yohannes Abraham, the executive secretary of the National Security Council.

A major focus, he said, is "revising or replacing" Executive Order 13526 that was issued by President Barack Obama in 2009 setting the parameters for classified national security information.

Up for review are the criteria for classification, how much is spent on declassification, and a reconsideration of what qualifies for the highest levels of protection, such as "special access programs," the memo added.

The review is also scrubbing Executive Order 13556 governing "controlled unclassified information" that Obama also signed in 2010 -- but was also widely considered to have fallen short of the goal of forcing into public view more government files.

Helping to advise the effort is a critic of what many consider to be an epidemic of over classification, current and former officials said.

John Powers is the associate director for classification management at the Information Security Oversight Office at the National Archives and Records Administration, which advises the president on the security classification system and has been advocating for reducing secrecy.

Powers also worked at the National Security Council from 2015 to 2018.

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