A leak of classified documents on the Ukraine war and a dozen other topics has raised questions around how the government handles state secrets. WSJ explains how these documents are supposed to be kept secure. Photo Illustration: Madeline MarshallWASHINGTON—A bipartisan group of senators plans to introduce legislation as soon as this week seeking to overhaul how the U.S. government classifies and protects its most sensitive national security secrets, according to people familiar with the matter, a push that comes in the wake of a recent damaging leak of intelligence files. A pair of complementary bills would attempt to both reduce the ever-expanding amount of material that is classified by, among other things, investing in automated technologies that would make it easier to downgrade material or make it public, the people said, while also looking to plug perceived gaps in the existing security-clearance process, which has failed to catch a wide array of leakers since changes after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks loosened access controls to some classified material.

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