The National Declassification Center was created in 2010 as a means of expediting the review and possible declassification of the National Archives and Records Administration's nearly 400 million-document backlog. One year into the project, NARA officials have released a progress report suggesting that the NDC may fall short of the presidentially-mandated deadline of December 2013.
"During our two years since stand up, we have assessed 70 percent of our backlog," report authors noted. "Quality assurance evaluation and processing for declassification prior to final segregating and indexing have been completed on 44 percent of that 70 percent."
Although the progress has been consistent, it has also been slightly behind proposed timetables. One of the primary sticking points has been a set of restricted or formerly restricted records identified by the National Defense Authorization Acts for fiscal years 1999 and 2000. According to Federal Computer Week, many of these documents relate to the proliferation or trafficking of nuclear weapons and require more extensive, page-level reviews.
NDC officials contend that they will likely assess all 400 million documents prior to the 2013 deadline, but the complicated, inter-agency collaboration needed to handle the most sensitive records will almost certainly inhibit the completion of all declassification processing within two years.
