[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13416]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 TRANSPARENCY AND GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Now, Mr. President, I would like to use that additional 
60 seconds.
  Another issue I want to raise with Senate leadership is transparency 
and our responsibility of government oversight.
  Last week, I spoke about the danger of allowing agencies to 
improperly use the Office of Senate Security to keep information secret 
even when it is unclassified.
  I said that if we let the FBI get away with hiding the Clinton 
investigation documents from the public, then other agencies would 
abuse the system to undermine transparency and oversight. That is 
exactly what is happening.
  The State, Treasury, and Justice Departments are trying the same 
trick to hide documents about the Obama administration's transfer of 
billions of dollars to Iran for hostages.
  These unclassified documents requested by the Judiciary Committee are 
being locked away in the basement of the Capitol. They are being 
treated as if they are classified, but they are not.
  The Committee was not consulted and did not agree to these burdensome 
and unnecessary document controls.
  With the Clinton investigation documents, the FBI improperly mixed 
classified and unclassified documents together in order to keep the 
unclassified documents secret. But, this time every paragraph and every 
page of the Iran hostage payment documents is 100 percent unclassified.
  So why send it to Senate Security? Why keep it locked away from the 
public and congressional oversight? Why would the Senate participate in 
this scheme to undermine transparency?
  If the Senate, as an institution, wants to take its oversight 
responsibility seriously, we should not be helping the executive branch 
hide embarrassing information from the American people.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Rubio). The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Fischer). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________