Priorities for Review through the NDC

Presidential Papers and Record Priorities Declassification

The Presidential Libraries and the Presidential Materials Division work closely with the National Declassification Center (NDC) to ensure that RAC referrals are prioritized for agency review. Under the auspices of the NDC, the Presidential Libraries prioritize collections that have classified equities in them that require an interagency referral. Each year the NDC publishes the Prioritization Plan which specifically lists the collections that have classified referrals including those materials that are part of the holdings of the Presidential Libraries. The priorities are also discussed in the NDC Open Forums.

Under the auspices of the NDC, the Presidential Libraries prioritized certain collections that agencies need to review in this year taking into account both the age of the records and the high public interest of some of our Presidential collections. Our prioritization plan for this year focuses on the key National Security Council files at each of the Libraries have twenty-five year old classified materials. We have also prioritized all Truman and Eisenhower classified materials. Under EO 136526, the President has established 25 years as the point at which classified information will be automatically declassified unless review and exempted as still containing classified information. Our first prioritized plan for 2011 focused on the key National Security Council files at each of the Libraries that have twenty-five year old classified materials, all Truman and Eisenhower classified materials, and Kissinger materials related to China from his classified collection at the Library of Congress. In 2012, we will focus on additional collections from our 25 year old collections related to foreign policy. For more information on the Prioritization Plan see the NDC web page.