[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.
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