# National Declassification Center **Status: stub — expand.** The **National Declassification Center (NDC)** was established within the [[National Archives]] by section 3.7 of [[Executive Order 13526]] to run the one declassification route that operates without anyone asking: **automatic declassification at 25 years**. Permanent-value records more than 25 years old are declassified on 31 December of the 25th year after origin unless an agency has exempted specific information under one of the nine categories at section 3.3(b). The NDC's central job is **referral coordination** — a single historical record often contains the equities of several agencies, and each must review its own material before release. ISOO Notice 2026-04, issued in August 2026, reissued the list of agencies eligible to receive referrals at the 25-, 50- and 75-year marks. ISOO reported 442.7 full-time equivalents working on automatic declassification government-wide in FY2023, against 88.7 on systematic review. ## See also - [[How Information Is Classified and Declassified]] — the four exits, and which one the NDC runs - [[Information Security Oversight Office]] · [[Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel]] · [[National Archives]] - [[Executive Order 13526]] - [[Federal Agencies Hub]]