[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12173]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              ADVOCATING INCREASED OPENNESS IN GOVERNMENT

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, with all that has been happening in the 
State of Texas, the Texas 51, the turmoil with people feeling that 
there is not an open process in the Texas legislature and why the House 
members there chose to send a message that we must open up our 
government, we find it interesting now that there is a report that the 
Department of Homeland Security is refusing to turn loose tapes that 
gave an indication of who requested an effort on the part of the 
Homeland Security agency of the United States Government to track the 
plane of State Representative Pete Laney in Texas.
  We have got to have an open government, one that the people feel 
confident in and be able to know that we are not hiding something, not 
trying to keep secrets from the public. Let us open this process up and 
include all of the people in America so that they can have a voice not 
just here in the United States House of Representatives but in the 
State House of Representatives in Texas and every other State in our 
Union.

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