Approved unanimously by the Council of the AHA, December 27, 1985
WHEREAS the 1984 Annual Report of the Information Security Oversight Office (published in April, 1985) reveals that among documents reviewed for declassification, the percentage of documents denied in part under the mandatory review process has increased dramatically from 10 percent of all documents reviewed in 1983 to 75 percent in 1984;
And WHEREAS the State Department reviewed only 684 foreign relations document cases under mandatory review in 1984, after having reviewed 853 in 1983;
And WHEREAS the low priority the Administration places on the systematic review process is reflected in a decrease in the number of documents declassified under systematic review, from a minimum of 30 million pages per year for the period 1973 to 1981 to under 13 million pages in both 1983 and 1984;
RESOLVED that the AHA Council and the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History bring to the attention of ISOO and other appropriate authorities the deep concern of the historical profession over these developments and continue to monitor closely the process of declassification in federal agencies;
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the AHA Council believes that these developments indicate the need for statutory authority for federal classification policy so that historians who write and teach about the modern era will be able to have access to the documents necessary to reach well supported conclusions about their subjects, thus enabling Americans to have a better understanding of their past.
