22 C.F.R. § 171.21 Declassification review.
Title 22 - Foreign Relations
(a) Scope. All information classified under E.O. 12958 or predecessor orders shall be subject to declassification review upon request by a member of the public or a U.S. government employee or agency with the following exceptions: (1) Information originated by the incumbent President or, in the performance of executive duties, the incumbent Vice President; the incumbent President's White House staff or, in the performance of executive duties, the incumbent Vice President's staff; committees, commissions, or boards appointed by the incumbent President; other entities within the Executive Office of the President that solely advise and assist the incumbent President; (2) Information that is the subject of litigation; (3) Information that has been reviewed for declassification within the past two years; and (4) Information exempted from search and review under the Central Intelligence Agency Information Act. (b) Requests. Requests for mandatory declassification review should be addressed to the Information and Privacy Coordinator at the address given in Sec. 171.5. E-mail requests are not accepted at this time. (c) Mandatory declassification review and the FOIA. A mandatory declassification review request is separate and distinct from a request for records under the FOIA. When a requester submits a request under both mandatory declassification review and the FOIA, the Department shall require the requester to elect review under one process or the other. If the requester fails to make such election, the request will be under the process that would result in the greatest disclosure unless the information requested is subject to only mandatory declassification review. (d) Description of information sought. In order to be processed, a request for declassification review must describe the document or the material containing the information sought with sufficient specificity to enable the Department to locate the document or material with a reasonable amount of effort. Whenever a request does not sufficiently describe the material, the Department shall notify the requester that no further action will be taken unless additional description of the information sought is provided. (e) Refusal to confirm or deny existence of information. The Department may refuse to confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of requested information whenever the fact of existence or nonexistence is itself classified. (f) Processing. In responding to mandatory declassification review requests, the Department shall make a review determination as promptly as possible and notify the requester accordingly. When the requested information cannot be declassified in its entirety, the Department shall release all meaningful portions that can be declassified and that are not exempt from disclosure on other grounds (see §171.25). (g) Other agency information. When the Department receives a request for information in its possession that was originally classified by another agency, it shall refer the request and the pertinent information to the other agency for processing unless that agency has agreed that the Department may review such information for declassification on behalf of that agency. The Department may, after consultation with the other agency, inform the requester of the referral unless association of the other agency with the information is itself classified. (h) Foreign government information. In the case of a request for material containing foreign government information, the Department, if it is also the agency that initially received the foreign government information, shall determine whether the information may be declassified and may, if appropriate, consult with the relevant foreign government on that issue. If the Department is not the agency that initially received the foreign government information, it shall refer the request to the original receiving agency for direct response to the requester. (i) Cryptologic and intelligence information. Mandatory declassification review requests for cryptologic information shall be processed in accordance with special procedures established by the Secretary of Defense, and such requests for information concerning intelligence activities or intelligence sources and methods shall be processed in accordance with special procedures established by the Director of Central Intelligence.
Title 22: Foreign Relations
PART 171—AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION AND RECORDS TO THE PUBLIC
Subpart C—Executive Order 12958 Provisions
§ 171.21 Declassification review.
