As the United States approaches the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, bipartisan pressure is mounting to confront what lawmakers, advocates, and experts describe as a deeply broken classification and declassification system, one that has left victims’ families without closure and fueled public mistrust in government.
That urgency was on full display at a public meeting of the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) held on Capitol Hill, where current and former lawmakers, intelligence officials, journalists, and family advocates called for accelerated declassification, particularly of long-withheld 9/11-related records.
A System “Badly Broken”
Opening the meeting, PIDB Chair Mark Engelson framed the challenge bluntly, noting that the federal government has been “overclassifying documents since the late 1940s” and that “when in doubt, classify” has produced “millions and millions of documents” that remain inaccessible to the public.
The scale of the problem, speakers emphasized, is not merely historical. Much of the government’s classified archive remains on paper, spread across agencies with differing standards, processes, and incentives, making timely review nearly impossible without reform.
The work of the PIDB ties directly into the newly launched President’s Management Agenda (PMA), which includes overclassification as a critical reform effort. The PMA cites overclassification as both a national-security risk and a governance failure, framing excessive secrecy as an obstacle to public trust, effective oversight, and sound decision-making. The agenda emphasizes discipline, modernization, and accountability, pushing agencies to justify secrecy, reduce default overclassification, and accelerate declassification where the risk of harm has diminished over time.
Senator Wyden: Declassification Is a Democratic Obligation
Senator Ron Wyden, who helped secure congressional support for the meeting, traced the origins of the PIDB to the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and argued that secrecy itself has become corrosive to democratic governance.
“The question becomes,” Wyden said, “should the public know what authorities the government claims to have to spy on Americans? Should the public know which countries their government is committing acts of war in?”
Wyden criticized a pattern in which elected officials defer classification decisions to intelligence agencies rather than exercising constitutional responsibility. “That’s not the end of the discussion, folks,” he said. “It’s really the beginning of the discussion.”
He also pointed to outdated workflows—such as classified materials physically circulated in blue bags—as evidence that the declassification system has failed to keep pace with modern governance.
Senator Slotkin: Overclassification Was the Default
Senator Elissa Slotkin brought a personal and professional perspective shaped by her service as a CIA analyst and Pentagon official, as well as her experience living in New York City on September 11.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that we were told when in doubt overclassify,” Slotkin said of her intelligence training. “You never want to be the gal who underclassifies.”
Slotkin argued that 9/11 should be treated as a “generational event” requiring a different declassification standard than routine intelligence matters. “We lost almost 3,000 Americans,” she said, adding that transparency is essential to addressing what she described as a widening “trust deficit” between the public and government institutions.
She warned that prolonged secrecy creates mystique rather than security, pointing to the delayed release of Kennedy assassination records as a cautionary example.
Representative Luna: Transparency as Trust Repair
Representative Anna Paulina Luna, chair of the House task force on declassification of federal secrets, emphasized that secrecy surrounding major historical events has contributed directly to public distrust.
“It is incredibly important for restoring trust between the American people and between Congress and the federal government that these documents are declassified,” Luna said.
She recounted conversations with 9/11 families who, she said, received more information from British intelligence than from U.S. agencies, an outcome she called “unacceptable.”
Families Still Waiting for Answers
The most passionate testimony came from Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice and the son of a World Trade Center victim. Eagleson argued that overclassification has “revictimized the victims” by fueling conspiracy theories and obstructing accountability.
“The truth is that overclassification fuels these conspiracy theories,” Eagleson said. “They give oxygen to all of these different theories and they revictimize the victims.”
Eagleson detailed specific intelligence materials he said were known to U.S. authorities shortly after the attacks but never shared with the 9/11 Commission, including evidence seized by British authorities at the request of the FBI.
“I don’t mean Congress when I say the government failed us,” Eagleson said. “I mean the executive branch.”
Structural Barriers to Declassification
Michael Thomas, executive director of the PIDB and head of the Information Security Oversight Office at the National Archives, outlined the structural challenges facing declassification efforts: fragmented custody of records, conflicting jurisdictional rules, and a system designed primarily to prevent harm rather than promote access.
“We’re talking about an enormous body of material,” Thomas said, spanning executive, legislative, and even private records, each governed by different legal standards.
PIDB Vice Chair Ezra Cohen added that the approaching 25-year automatic declassification deadline risks repeating the delays seen with JFK records unless resources and executive direction change quickly. “We are on track for this to be just as delayed, if not more delayed,” he warned.
A New Administration, A New Test
While speakers did not cite specific executive actions, the meeting repeatedly underscored that meaningful progress now depends on leadership from the executive branch, particularly as mandatory declassification timelines converge with public demand for transparency.
Board members emphasized that Congress can apply pressure through funding, oversight, and legislation, but several speakers stressed that without executive branch cooperation, secrecy will continue by default.
“We don’t want to wait,” Cohen said. “We need to get these things out right now.”
What Comes Next
The PIDB committed to mapping where 9/11 records reside across government, continuing to advocate for resources, and pushing for systemic reforms, including automation and AI, to reduce overclassification and accelerate review.
As Engelson concluded, “Even beyond 9/11, the system is badly broken.” Whether the approaching anniversary—and a new administration—will finally force change remains an open question.
