[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 142 (Friday, October 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H12275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            DOD'S RESPONSE TO FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

  (Mrs. SCHROEDER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, it is no secret I have been coming to 
the floor every day this week talking about my war with the Defense 
Department and why they are violating regulations by allowing military 
officers to engage in partisan politics by assigning them to the 
Speaker's office.
  I had a freedom of information request to the Defense Department, and 
after I gave my speech yesterday, I want to show you what the Defense 
Department sent me. Is this wonderful? This is their answer to my 
freedom of information request. Really helpful, huh? One blacked-out 
page after another. And they also sent me my own correspondence back, 
which I thought was very sweet of them.
  They said in their letter that they must withhold this information, 
because it had subjective evaluations, opinions and recommendations in 
it. That is precisely what we were getting to.
  Obviously this is in clear violation of President Clinton's memo to 
all departments. Talking about how the Freedom of Information Act is 
how people get information from their Government. This is an outrage 
and I am very sorry to see this happen.

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