[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 21552]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            INFORMED CONSENT

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, before I talk about the topic that brings 
me to the floor, I express my gratitude to the majority leader, Senator 
Reid, for bringing up the freedom of information reform bill that 
Senator Leahy, the Senator from Vermont, and I have been working on for 
a number of years. When I was attorney general of Texas, it was my 
responsibility to enforce our open Government laws, and I became a big 
advocate of greater transparency, more openness in Government, because 
I believe that only a public that is truly informed can give their 
consent. It has to be informed consent. That is, after all, the very 
fundamental basis for the legitimacy of all of our laws.
  When I came to the Senate, I was pleased to see that Senator Leahy, 
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had been very active in 
this area. We joined efforts in a bipartisan way to work on these 
reforms. I know Senator Kyl has some concerns. He expressed those this 
morning. He has been good about working with us to try to work our way 
through that. I share his hope and aspiration that we can work through 
the differences and perhaps complete our work on those Freedom of 
Information Act reforms this week before we break for August. I think 
that would be a very positive development and one that is certainly 
worthy of the Senate.

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