The simplest way to declassify the 28-page finding on foreign government ties to the 9/11 hijackers is for the president to do so with a stroke of his pen. There is, however, a lesser-known alternative declassification route that empowers Congress to release the 28 pages on its own.

Each house of Congress has rules by which its respective intelligence committee can initiate the disclosure of classified information—and with the approval of the full House or Senate, the release of that information can even proceed over the president’s objection.

The Senate version is found in Section 8 of Senate Resolution 400 within the Senate intelligence committee’s Rules of Procedure (see Appendix A). The House version is in Rule X, Clause 11(g) of the Rules of the House of Representatives (p.15). Both rules authorize the committee to publicly disclose any information in the possession of the committee after concluding that “the public interest would be served by such disclosure.”

The process is very similar in both houses of Congress, so reading one of the descriptions below will give you the general idea. We describe* them differently because of some subtle differences that could be meaningful.

Senate Intelligence Committee

• If any member of the committee requests a vote to declassify something, the committee must meet within five days to vote on it.
• If the committee approves declassification, it must notify the president after first consulting the Senate majority and minority leaders.
• If, after five days, the president hasn’t personally objected in writing to certify “that the threat to the national interest of the United States posed by such disclosure is of such gravity that it outweigh any public interest in the disclosure,” the committee will proceed with disclosing the information.
• If the president does object, the question of disclosure can be referred for a vote by the full Senate, either by the minority and majority leaders jointly, or by a majority vote of the intelligence committee.
• The full Senate can either approve or disapprove all or part of the disclosure, or refer it back to the intelligence committee and let it make the final decision.

House Intelligence Committee

• If any member of the committee requests a vote to declassify something, the committee must meet within five days to vote on it.
• If the committee approves declassification, it then notifies the president.
• If, after five days, the president hasn’t personally objected in writing to certify “that the threat to the national interest of the United States posed by such disclosure is of such gravity that it outweigh any public interest in the disclosure,” the committee may proceed with disclosing the information.
• If the president does object, the matter may be referred to the full House for a vote, by a majority vote of the intelligence committee.
• The House rules appear to differ from the Senate in not offering the option for the full body to approve a partial disclosure; at least, that option is not stated explicitly as it is in the Senate version.

*We’ve done our best to crystallize the processes into easy-to-understand summaries; there may be parliamentary obstacles between the steps in the process.