[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 9, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S6783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     DSCC AND INVASIONS OF PRIVACY

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I rise today to alert my colleagues to what 
may be a very disturbing precedent. My office recently received a copy 
of a letter dated May 18 and sent from the Democratic Senatorial 
Campaign Committee to the Department of Health and Human Services. I 
want to read the first paragraph:

       I am writing to request documents pursuant to the Freedom 
     of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552 et seq., involving all 
     correspondence, inquiries and other information requested by 
     or provided to the following United States Senators for the 
     time periods noted.

  There are some 10 Republican Senators that are listed here over the 
last 10 years. I ask unanimous consent that this letter be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                             Democratic Senatorial


                                           Campaign Committee,

                                     Washington, DC, May 18, 1999.
     HHS Freedom of Information Officer,

     Washington, DC.
     Re: Freedom of Information Act Request.

       I am writing to request documents pursuant to the Freedom 
     of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552 et seq. (``FOIA''), 
     involving all correspondence, inquiries and other information 
     requested by or provided to the following United States 
     Senators for the time periods noted: Spencer Abraham, 1995-
     present; John Ashcroft, 1995-present; Conrad Burns, 1989-
     present; Bill Frist, 1995-present; Slade Gorton, 1981-1986, 
     1989-present; Rod Grams, 1995-present; James Jeffords, 1989-
     present; John Kyl, 1995-present; Rick Santorum, 1991-present; 
     Olympia Snowe, 1995-present.
       I seek all direct correspondence between the Senators or 
     members of their staff and your office, including letters, 
     written material, reports, constituent requests and other 
     relevant material. I am not seeking any secondary material 
     such as phone logs, e-mails, notations of conversations and 
     so on. Since this is a request covering a number of years, I 
     am willing to discuss ways to make this request more 
     manageable to your office. Please contact me at the number 
     above or on my direct line at (202) 485-3109.
       In the event any of the documents I have requested are not 
     available for disclosure in their entirety, I request you 
     release any material that may be reasonably separated and 
     released, as provided by Code of Federal Regulations. 
     Furthermore, for any documents, or portions thereof, that are 
     determined to be exempt from disclosure, I request that you 
     exercise your discretion to disclose the materials, absent a 
     finding that sound grounds exist to invoke the exemption, as 
     provided by the Code of Federal Regulations. I also request 
     that you state the specific legal and factual grounds for 
     withholding any documents or portions of documents. Finally, 
     please identify each document that falls within scope of this 
     request but is withheld from release.
       If any requested documents are located in, or originated 
     in, another installation or bureau, I request that you refer 
     this request or any relevant portion of this request to the 
     appropriate installation or bureau.
       I am willing to pay all reasonable costs incurred in 
     locating and duplicating these materials. Please contact me 
     prior to processing to approve any fees or charges incurred 
     in excess of $125.
       To help assess my status for copying and mailing fees, 
     please note that I am a representative of a political 
     organization gathering information for research purposes 
     only, and not for any commercial activity.
       I look forward to your response within ten days after the 
     receipt of this request and please do not hesitate to call me 
     with any questions.
           Sincerely,
                                                Alexis L. Schuler,
                                                Research Director.

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, in this letter, the DSCC is making a broad 
request under the Freedom of Information Act regarding any information 
sent from my office to HHS or received from the Department. But it just 
doesn't include me. I have already said that. It includes a lot of 
Senators--10 of them, in fact, all Republicans, all up for reelection 
this year.
  The Freedom of Information Act request covers, ``all correspondence, 
inquiries and other information requested by or provided to'' my office 
over the past 10 years in the Senate, including ``all direct 
correspondence between the Senators or members of their staff and the 
HHS, including letters, written material, reports, constituent requests 
[very important] and other relevant materials.'' In other words, they 
want access to our casework.
  I have written to President Clinton demanding that he put an 
immediate stop to this or any similar action. What we are witnessing 
here is an unprecedented attempt to corrupt the nonpolitical casework 
system of Senate offices for political gain. I find these efforts 
repugnant, and if there are any Americans alive who think politics 
can't sink any lower, they need to look no further than right here.
  Through the letter to the HHS, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign 
Committee wants more than just to peer into private correspondence of 
political enemies; it wants to leer into the private lives of those who 
contact their Senator seeking help with Federal agencies. I have made 
tens of thousands of contacts on behalf of Montanans who asked me to 
help them with problems they are having with the Federal Government.
  These are problems which, if publicly revealed, could possibly ruin 
their lives. Many of these people are at the end of their emotional 
rope. Some of them are at the end of their financial world.
  It is beyond belief that the DSCC would consider ruining the lives of 
ordinary Americans to be all in a day's work in order to defeat this 
old Senator. This effort would put a permanent chill on the ability of 
Senators to help constituents in need. It saddens me to think that 
those who view a Senator's help as their last resort may now believe 
they have nowhere to turn.
  Just today, my office received a letter from a man in Billings, MT, 
whose wife we helped to receive treatment for breast cancer. As a 
Federal employee, she was having a hard time receiving the treatment. 
And she was entitled to it. After she asked for our assistance, we were 
able to resolve the matter for her and she got the care she needed. 
When her cancer spread, the Federal bureaucracy told her she couldn't 
get the care she needed close to home.
  Quoting his letter to me:

       After becoming totally frustrated with the whole process, 
     we just gave up. But this time we decided to fight the issue 
     again. I turned to the Senator's office again to enlist his 
     help. And again in what seemed to be a flash of light, the 
     situation has been resolved.

  Our office again stepped in. We cut the redtape. We helped her 
receive the additional radiation therapy while staying at her home in 
Billings.
  These are the people who depend on our help--real people whose lives 
are literally on the line. But the man who sent me the letter 
specifically asked that his name not be used in order to protect his 
privacy and, yes, that of his wife.
  Is it right that he should be subject to a Freedom of Information 
request, that some bureaucrat somewhere could decide on a whim to 
release this personal, sensitive information? It is hard to comprehend 
that the DSCC would use the time and the resources of the 
administration for political purposes in such a massive research 
effort, regardless of who ultimately pays.
  This effort is as constitutionally breathtaking as it is politically 
suspect. All those who value their civil rights should be outraged at 
this attempt to invade the privacy of countless unwary citizens. If 
indeed Federal law permits it, it is an absolute shame. It is enough to 
make me wonder whether Americans should now expect politicians to use 
any means to achieve their ends--laws, morals, and ethics be damned.
  Our President has said he deplores the politics of personal 
destruction. However, in this case we are not talking about the 
destruction of one political opponent, but the lives of innocent 
Americans. And I am sickened by it. I ask the President and all 
Americans to stand up against this kind of invasion of privacy, all in 
the name of gaining an electoral advantage.
  My political opponents are welcome to engage me anytime, anywhere, on 
my record, which I am proud to stand on. But when you try to drag the 
lives of innocent Montanans into your ugly schemes, I will fight with 
every breath in my body. It is a sad day.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________