Reading Room Document

Interpretation of Section 586 of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act

Existing statutory provisions that prohibit or impose mandatory restrictions on the public release of information are not overridden by section 586 of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2003, which requires the President to order federal agencies "to expeditiously declassify and release to the victims' families" information regarding the murders of certain Americans in El Salvador and Guatemala. Provisions that permit but do not require the government to withhold information are, however, overridden by section 586. It is permissible to interpret the scope of the information covered by section 586 to be limited to classified information. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/18961/download.

July 18, 2003