NARA Issues Final Rule On Controlled Unclassified Information

A year and four months after its proposed rule, and nearly six years after the Executive Order that called for the standardization of handling requirements for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) issued its final rule on CUI last week (81 FR 63324, September 14, 2016).

The final rule is the outgrowth of Executive Order 13556, Controlled Unclassified Information, 75 FR 68675 (November 4, 2010).  This Executive Order gave NARA the authority to "establish an open and uniform program for managing [unclassified] information that requires safeguarding or dissemination controls" to replace the ad hoc, patchwork approach used by federal agencies in the absence of uniform guidance.  NARA issued a proposed rule on May 5, 2015 (80 FR 26501).  We addressed the proposed rule and the maze of regulations relating to the safeguarding of non-classified government information in a previous article.