[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Page 24924]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT

  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, we are about 10 minutes away from a vote 
on the energy and water conference report. I wanted to put forward one 
very cogent reason for voting against this bill.
  This bill hides from the American people information to which they 
are entitled. There was clearly accepted by unanimous consent an 
amendment that said the reports in that bill will be made available to 
all Senators and all the citizens of this country--and rightly so--
unless it had a national security implication for not exposing that 
information.
  The best government is the one that is the most open. The best 
government is the one in which people have trust. By bringing this bill 
to the floor out of conference and dropping the transparency amendment, 
the transparency section where one can actually see what is going on in 
Washington, where one can actually see where their money is being 
spent, where one can actually see the information that a select group 
of Senators see but other Senators do not, as well as the American 
people--if, in fact, one can see that, that breeds accountability in 
Washington.
  If my colleagues, in fact, vote for this conference report, what they 
are saying is they want to keep the American people in the dark; they 
do not want them to see what we are doing; they do not want them to see 
how we are doing it; they do not want them to see why we are doing it. 
They want the elite position of making a judgment without being held 
accountable.
  I urge my colleagues to vote against this conference report.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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