(a) Agencies should decontrol as soon as practicable any CUI designated by their agency that no longer requires safeguarding or dissemination controls, unless doing so conflicts with the governing law, regulation, or Government-wide policy.

(b) Agencies may decontrol CUI automatically upon the occurrence of one of the conditions below, or through an affirmative decision by the designating agency:

(1) When laws, regulations or Government-wide policies no longer require its control as CUI and the authorized holder has the appropriate authority under the authorizing law, regulation, or Government-wide policy;

(2) When the designating agency decides to release it to the public by making an affirmative, proactive disclosure;

(3) When the agency discloses it in accordance with an applicable information access statute, such as the FOIA, or the Privacy Act (when legally permissible), if the agency incorporates such disclosures into its public release processes; or

(4) When a pre-determined event or date occurs, as described in §2002.20(g), unless law, regulation, or Government-wide policy requires coordination first.

(c) The designating agency may also decontrol CUI:

(1) In response to a request by an authorized holder to decontrol it; or

(2) Concurrently with any declassification action under Executive Order 13526 or any predecessor or successor order, as long as the information also appropriately qualifies for decontrol as CUI.

(d) An agency may designate in its CUI policies which agency personnel it authorizes to decontrol CUI, consistent with law, regulation, and Government-wide policy.

(e) Decontrolling CUI relieves authorized holders from requirements to handle the information under the CUI Program, but does not constitute authorization for public release.

(f) Authorized holders must clearly indicate that CUI is no longer controlled when restating, paraphrasing, re-using, releasing to the public, or donating it to a private institution. Otherwise, authorized holders do not have to mark, review, or take other actions to indicate the CUI is no longer controlled.

(1) Agency policy may allow authorized holders to remove or strike through only those CUI markings on the first or cover page of the decontrolled CUI and markings on the first page of any attachments that contain CUI.

(2) If an authorized holder uses the decontrolled CUI in a newly created document, the authorized holder must remove all CUI markings for the decontrolled information.

(g) Once decontrolled, any public release of information that was formerly CUI must be in accordance with applicable law and agency policies on the public release of information.

(h) Authorized holders may request that the designating agency decontrol certain CUI.

(i) If an authorized holder publicly releases CUI in accordance with the designating agency's authorized procedures, the release constitutes decontrol of the information.

(j) Unauthorized disclosure of CUI does not constitute decontrol.

(k) Agencies must not decontrol CUI in an attempt to conceal, or to otherwise circumvent accountability for, an identified unauthorized disclosure.

(l) When laws, regulations, or Government-wide policies require specific decontrol procedures, authorized holders must follow such requirements.

(m) The Archivist of the United States may decontrol records transferred to the National Archives in accordance with §2002.34, absent a specific agreement otherwise with the designating agency. The Archivist decontrols records to facilitate public access pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 2108 and NARA's regulations at 36 CFR parts 1235, 1250, and 1256.