Washington — The Pentagon has proposed new legislation requesting Congress to grant the defense secretary broad authority to withhold certain unclassified records from public access under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This proposal aims to create a new legal exemption for "controlled unclassified information" (CUI) that the military deems related to national defense vulnerabilities, allowing withholding if the potential harm outweighs the public interest.

CUI was established during the Obama administration to standardize various inconsistent "For Official Use Only" markings across federal agencies. However, critics argue that CUI is vaguely defined and broadly applied. A former contractor, Williams, told CBS News, "Controlled unclassified information is already very problematic because it's not very carefully defined and it's used to protect lots of different kinds of information," adding that the common practice was, "when in doubt, mark it as CUI."

Brett Max Kaufman, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union's Center for Democracy, highlighted a "massive overclassification problem throughout the executive branch" and cautioned that "the last thing the government needs is a new power to withhold information under the FOIA."

The FOIA, enacted in 1966, requires federal agencies to disclose records unless they fall under one of nine narrowly defined exemptions. The law was recently strengthened by the FOIA Improvement Act of 2026, which demands agencies demonstrate a concrete, not speculative, harm before withholding records.

The Pentagon's proposal would also empower the Defense Department to prevent state and local governments from releasing covered records under their own open records laws, extending federal control over information beyond federal custody.

Acting Pentagon press secretary Joe Valdez stated, "The legislative proposal seeks a statutory FOIA exemption for certain CUI that implicates national security interests to provide more uniform protection and more consistent withholding decisions for such information."

This move has sparked debate over the balance between national security and government transparency, with advocates warning it could significantly reduce public oversight of the nation's largest federal agency and the use of taxpayer funds.

Sources