FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Washington, D.C., July 31, 2026 — In a direct blow to public oversight, the Department of Defense is pushing a proposal to exempt “controlled unclassified information” from the Freedom of Information Act. If successful, the change would allow the agency to unilaterally hide millions of files from taxpayers, service members, and open-records laws — potentially forever.
That’s why a broad coalition of transparency organizations, press freedom advocates, and watchdog groups today sent a joint letter to lawmakers urging Congress to reject the Pentagon’s secrecy grab.
The following statement can be attributed to Lauren Harper, FPF’s Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy:
“The Pentagon is already too secretive, and the last thing it needs is a rubber stamp to hide unclassified records under the guise of national security. This is especially true at a time when the military is conducting potentially unlawful lethal strikes, trying to muddy the number of U.S. casualties of military operations overseas, and attacking the press, whistleblowers, and the public’s right to know.
“The dangers of this are hard to overstate, given the rampant abuse of controlled unclassified information markings across the department. This antidemocratic proposal is also entirely unnecessary, since FOIA already contains robust exemptions to shield both properly classified material and sensitive unclassified data.
“We don’t need the Pentagon hiding more information from FOIA. We need it to actually respond to public records requests, we need it to stop harassing journalists for doing their job, and we need it to be transparent and accountable to the public, service members, and their families.”
Please contact us if you would like further comment, and read the letters below.
