In a free society, there must be a balance between national security and democratic accountability. Recognizing that some information must be classified for effective national security and foreign policy, we must also assure the ability of the public to evaluate government activity and information in the long term.
The President should propose a new law to Congress requiring that
(1) all classified information shall be automatically declassified 70 years after its original date of classification, except if the individual document is specifically and personally exempted by the President; and
(2) no information may under any circumstance remain classified more than 100 years after its original date of classification.