Government operations and workforce

Executive Order 12937: Declassification of Selected Records Within the National Archives of the United States

President: Bill Clinton

Declassified large groups of World War II and later military and civilian records and directed public access within 30 days, subject to non-national-security FOIA exemptions.

Status: Completed/expired.

Is Executive Order 12937 still in effect? No. Completed declassification and public-access direction for approximately 43.9 million pages of listed archival records.

What does Executive Order 12937 do?

EO 12937 directly declassified listed National Archives holdings: about 21 million pages of World War II and earlier records and 22.9 million post-1945 pages. The Archivist had 30 days to make them available for research. Agencies and the Archivist could still protect specific information under valid Freedom of Information Act exemptions other than the national-security exemption. The one-time review and access direction is complete.

Administration position: The order accelerated broad historical access. It did not waive privacy, law-enforcement or other non-classification protections.
SignedNovember 10, 1994
Records listedApproximately 43.9 million pages
Access deadline30 days

Before and after

Before the order

The listed holdings remained unreviewed or classified in archival custody.

After the order

The records were declassified as groups, with only permitted non-national-security withholding retained.

Who had to do what

Agency / officeActionTiming / position
ArchivistMake listed records available for researchWithin 30 days
Affected agencies and ArchivistIdentify any other lawful FOIA withholdingFor specific information

What happened next

EO 12937 declassified the listed holdings.