[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 142 (Friday, October 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H12299]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CAN GOVERNMENT THRIVE IN SUNSHINE?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Walker). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise for my last speech very saddened 
by the fact that I have to ask the question: Am I too idealistic for 
government, or is government possible without--can you possibly relate 
to values and character and disclosure? Can government ever be anything 
other than a fungus? Can it thrive in sunshine? I tend to believe it 
can. But I want to tell you I came in with difficulties with the 
Defense Department, and I leave with the same frustration and 
difficulties with the Defense Department. It is now under my own party, 
and they are probably happier to see me leave than anybody, even on the 
other side of the aisle. How saddened I am that their real message to 
me is:
  You are leaving. We do not care. Good-bye. We are not even going to 
answer inquiries.
  Now for 6 months almost we have been asking the Defense Department 
about why they would deploy high ranking officials to the Speaker's 
office. We have asked that and asked that and asked that. They have 
stonewalled and stonewalled.
  Then we add a Freedom of Information Act, and what did I get? I got 
their memo talking about how the Speaker had requested these high 
quality officers in his thing. Then I got a wonderful four pages, 
totally blacked out, and the rest of it was copies of my letters to 
them.
  Now, this is treating me like I have the brain of a gnat. You think 
that if they are sitting over there with over 20,000 employees and that 
kind of arrogance: we do not care what the law is, we are going to do 
what we want; this saddens me very much, and I think it only breeds 
cynicism about what happens to people when they come here.
  I remind them that I thought they worked for the Commander in Chief. 
He put out a memo on what department heads and agencies were supposed 
to do with the Freedom of Information Act. I remind them I thought they 
worked under Janet Reno and her memo about what you are supposed to do 
with the Freedom of Information Act and that kind of information.
  How classified could this information be? I mean please. These memos 
all say that, if one sentence is classified, you are not to blank out 
the whole page. Well, tell that to the Defense Department.
  Furthermore, how classified is that that public regulations in the 
House and public regulations in the Defense Department, which clearly 
deny the use of military officers for partisan purposes when they are 
being requested; the Joint Chiefs then send them over? That is not 
classified. That is not any great secret. I guess the only secret is if 
other Members of Congress find out this happened, they too may request 
officers in their office. And where does this all end?
  That is why this is so dangerous.
  Look, a lot of people liked it when they grow up playing with 
soldiers, little tin soldiers; but we are not supposed to be able to 
requisition fully funded taxpayer soldiers to play with in your office. 
This is not GI Joe. This is a legislative body.
  So, obviously, what this has done was one more way the Pentagon 
lobbies on this Hill. They lobby on this Hill in a way that no other 
agency can, and people will be outraged if any other agency did. Yet, 
they get by with it, and I think it is very sad that they would duck 
the Freedom of Information Act, duck the memos from the Attorney 
General, duck the memos from the President and do their total blackout 
on something that I cannot imagine has one classified secret that you 
could even dream of in there.
  I think all this is is protecting their backside. All this is is 
saying that that woman will go back to Colorado, and we will not have 
to deal with her, and no one else will take this up. Well, I hope other 
Members in this body take it up because I think, once you start 
allowing the military to come into political offices, I do not care if 
they are Republican or Democratic offices, and sit around to use 
military strategy to figure out how you declare partisan war on the 
other side, that is a shock. I think the taxpayers would find that 
shocking. I do not think they think we pay military officers to engage 
in partisan political games. I think they think they are paying them to 
do something in an entirely different nonpartisan way.
  So I hope these lines do not ever get blurred again. We have seen a 
tremendous blurring of them, and we have seen the Defense Department 
stonewalling and defending them and defending their right to do it. But 
as I leave here, I certainly hope somebody picks this up and we put 
this to bed.

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