Information Security Oversight Office ISOO

President Jimmy Carter created the Information Security Oversight Office in his 1978 executive order on classification, replacing an earlier interagency review committee, to monitor whether agencies were following the rules. It was first placed in the General Services Administration and moved to the National Archives and Records Administration in 1995. It takes policy direction from the National Security Council, and its director is appointed by the Archivist of the United States with the approval of the President.

Under Executive Order 13526, the office issues the government-wide rules that carry out the classification system, inspects agency programs, reviews agency regulations, and reports each year to the President on how much information is classified and declassified. It also runs the program for controlled unclassified information, sensitive but unclassified material such as law enforcement and privacy records, created by executive order in 2010, oversees the industrial security program for contractors doing classified work, and supports the Public Interest Declassification Board and the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel.

The office has a staff of a few dozen people overseeing a system used by millions, and its reports have documented the scale of classification and the cost of protecting secrets. Its directors have warned repeatedly that agencies classify too much, a view shared by the Public Interest Declassification Board, which has called the system outdated and unable to handle digital records. Supporters of the current arrangement say oversight from within the executive branch respects the President's authority over national security information, while critics say the office lacks the power and resources to force agencies to change.