[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3908-3909]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         NATIONAL SUNSHINE WEEK

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, this week our country is celebrating the 
second annual National Sunshine Week, established last year by an 
extraordinary coalition of print, radio, television, and online media 
associations and outlets. And yesterday was national Freedom of 
Information Day--celebrated every year at a national conference held at 
the Freedom Forum's World Center in Arlington, VA, on James Madison's 
birthday.
  As we celebrate National Sunshine Week, it is an appropriate time to 
evaluate the significant progress of the past year toward reforming the 
Freedom of Information Act. But we must also recognize that we can--and 
should--certainly do more to preserve the open-government principles on 
which our great country was founded.
  At a time when Americans reportedly know more about the television 
show ``The Simpsons'' than they do about the five provisions of the 
first amendment--freedom of press, speech, religion, assembly, and 
petition for redress of grievances--or can name the three ``American 
Idol'' judges more readily than three first amendment provisions, 
Congress must do its utmost to preserve these protections while also 
educating the public about reform efforts.
  The Declaration of Independence makes clear that our inalienable 
rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness may be secured 
only where ``Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed.'' And James Madison, the 
father of our Constitution, wrote that consent of the

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governed means informed consent--that ``a people who mean to be their 
own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge 
gives.''
  As attorney general of Texas, I was responsible for enforcing Texas's 
open government laws. I have always been proud that Texas is known for 
having one of the strongest, most robust freedom of information laws in 
the country, and I have enjoyed working with my colleagues here in 
Washington to spread a little of that ``Texas Sunshine''.
  I would specifically like to express my gratitude to Senator Leahy 
and to his staff for all their hard work on these issues of mutual 
interest and national interest. And I would like to thank and to 
commend Senator Leahy for his decades-long commitment to freedom of 
information. He has been a strong ally and valuable advocate in this 
process, and he and I have both noted that openness in government is 
not a Republican or a Democratic issue. Any party in power is always 
reluctant to share information, out of an understandable--albeit 
ultimately unpersuasive--fear of arming its enemies and critics. But 
regardless of our differences on various policy controversies of the 
day, we should all agree that those policy differences deserve a full 
debate before the American people.
  While much of the FOIA reform efforts, to date, have focused on 
providing access generally, more can be done to improve the process 
specifically. Access to information is certainly essential, but so is 
accelerating the rate at which these requests are fulfilled. Access is 
of little value when requests for information are subjected to lengthy 
delay.
  Open government is one of the most basic requirements of a healthy 
democracy. The default position of our Government must be one of 
openness. If records can be open, they should be open. If good reason 
exists to keep something closed, it is the Government that should bear 
the burden to prove that need--not the other way around.
  Back in December, President Bush signed an Executive order that 
enhances current FOIA policies. That move was just one important step 
toward more sunshine in government.
  But the President's directive moves the country forward toward 
strengthening open government laws and reinforcing a national 
commitment to freedom of information in several important ways that I 
will discuss here just briefly:
  It affirms that FOIA has provided citizens with important information 
about the functioning of government;
  It directs FOIA officials to reduce agency backlogs, create a process 
for everyday citizens to track the status of their request, and 
establishes a protocol for requestors to resolve FOIA disputes short of 
filing litigation;
  It creates a FOIA service center where people seeking information can 
track the status of their requests;
  And one very good step is that it creates a FOIA public liaison who 
acts as a supervisor of FOIA personnel. This person will be available 
to resolve any disagreements that might arise between people seeking 
information and the Government. It also requires each chief FOIA 
officer to review his or her agency's practices, including ways that 
technology is used, in order to set concrete milestones and timetables 
to reduce backlogs and carry out its FOIA responsibilities.
  Other important progress was made throughout 2005. In June, the 
Senate passed the legislation Senator Pat Leahy and I authored, and 
hopefully the House of Representatives will quickly pass this important 
legislation. This particular reform creates additional legislative 
transparency by requiring that any future legislation containing 
exemptions to requirements be ``stated explicitly within the text of 
the bill.
  In addition, we introduced the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our 
National Government Act of 2005--OPEN Government Act, S. 394--in 
February and a separate bill in March to establish an advisory 
Commission on Freedom of Information Act Processing Delays. A hearing 
held in March examined the OPEN Government Act. And I urge Congress to 
pass this law as quickly as is possible.
  But, as I said, more remains to be done to ensure that American 
citizens have access to the information they need. One way we could do 
that, and something I believe would be a positive and welcome step in 
this area, would be to provide additional, dedicated funding for FOIA 
resources, to address request backlogs. I believe this could be 
accomplished much in the same way Congress offered assistance to local 
law enforcement through providing additional funds so they could 
address their DNA backlogs or the assistance it provided to the FBI to 
address its backlog of untranslated intercepts of terrorists' telephone 
calls. Additional funding dedicated to this problem will speed the rate 
information is given to the requestors. Working toward these goals 
means that we continue to ensure the public's access to information.
  Our Founders understood that a free society could not exist without 
informed citizens and open, accessible government. And as our country 
celebrates National Sunshine Week, Congress must continue its work to 
restore and strengthen its commitment to open government and freedom of 
information.

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