Protect integrity, fairness, and objectivity in decisions regarding access to classified information, and for other purposes.

Summary

Makes the government’s written procedures the exclusive process for deciding who may access classified information, requires the President to publish those procedures, and creates a new right to appeal denials. It also requires agency leaders to ensure clearance and access decisions respect constitutional rights, forbid discrimination and retaliation, and conform to existing statutory limits, plus it adds definitions for terms used in the new appeal rules.

• Makes the established federal procedures the exclusive process for decisions about access to classified information.
• Requires the President to publish those procedures in the Federal Register within 180 days and to publish revisions at least 30 days before they take effect.
• Directs agency heads to ensure access determinations do not violate constitutional rights (First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments).
• Prohibits discrimination (race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap) in access decisions and forbids retaliatory or reprisal-based denials.
• Creates a statutory right to appeal certain denials of eligibility or access to classified information and defines who may appeal.
• Adds statutory definitions for key terms such as agency, classified information, and eligibility for access to classified information.
• Makes clerical edits to the national security statute's table of contents to reflect the new procedural and appeal provisions.