House Passes Bill to Improve Information Sharing with First Responders

On Tuesday, the House passed the Reducing Over-Classification Act of 2009 (H.R. 553). The legislation details steps the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must take to share intelligence with state, local, and tribal agencies.

The bill would decrease obstacles to making available to all levels of the government information generated by DHS that concerns homeland security, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction. To do so, the legislation requires DHS to take the following steps within a year of enactment:

• Create standard classified and unclassified formats for finished intelligence products
• Clearly mark classified information within all documents so that unclassified information can be segregated from the document
• Establish training programs to educate employees on proper classification procedures and penalties for noncompliance
• The DHS Inspector General (IG) must monitor the implementation of these procedures and submit annual reports to the Homeland Security committees of the House and Senate
• The IG must also establish and institute a series of penalties for employees and contractors who repeatedly fail to comply

DHS, however, is only one federal agency which gathers intelligence useful to all levels of the government in the event of a terrorist attack or other emergency. The entire national intelligence apparatus needs the same reforms in order to provide government at all levels the maximum amount of information possible. This legislation also limits the types of information that must comply with the standards and would be of little use during natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

Ultimately, the goals of the bill are a noble step forward. Hopefully, if the bill is passed by the Senate and signed by the president, DHS efforts will serve as an example leading to systemic change in information sharing throughout the federal government.

Image by Flickr user tomsaint used under a Creative Commons license.