A House-passed bill intended to reduce the amount of material being classified at the Homeland Security Department is now advancing in the Senate.

The bill, HR 553, would enable officials to track who is classifying each document and impose annual training requirements on DHS employees and contractors who have authority to classify material to remind them when it is OK and not OK to classify things.The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the bill Nov. 4. The House passed the bill in February.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., introduced the bill in response to what she saw as rampant abuses of classification power during the George W. Bush administration.

"Classifying information for the wrong reasons — to protect turf or to avoid embarrassment — is wrong. During my eight years on the House Intelligence Committee, I became incredibly frustrated with this practice, which the Bush administration elevated to an art form," she said, adding that the practice has spread to DHS.

Harman also argued that state and local first responders need access to DHS information to respond to potential threats, and some of that information is needlessly classified.

"Sheriffs and police chiefs cannot readily access the information they need to prevent or disrupt a potential terrorist attack because those at the federal level resist sharing information. Overclassification and pseudoclassification, which is stamping with any number of sensitive-but-unclassified markings, remain rampant," Harman said in February during a House debate on the bill.

Under the bill, the Homeland Security secretary also would be required to create standardized classified and unclassified formats for completed DHS intelligence reports to ensure transparency.

Other bills approved by the committee last week include:

å S 1862, which would allow members of the Secret Service who were hired from Jan. 1, 1984, to Dec. 31, 1986, to transition to the District of Columbia Police and Firefighters Retirement and Disability System. The Secret Service employees hired during this period were told they would be allowed to join the D.C. police retirement system, but legislation is needed to allow the employees to make the transition.

In order to qualify, Secret Service employees must hold jobs directly related to the agency's protection mission and be current employees when the act takes effect. Clerical employees are not eligible.

å S 1825, which extends the authority for relocation expenses test programs. The test programs were authorized in the 1998 Travel and Transportation Reform Act, and authorization expires this year. å