[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13837-13838]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 RESTRICTIONS ON UNCLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today I want to again discuss the 
unnecessary restrictions on unclassified documents from the FBI's 
investigation of Secretary Clinton.
  By way of background, on September 12, I came to the floor and gave a 
speech about the FBI improperly restricting unclassified documents as 
if they were actually classified. Since that speech, the FBI Director 
has continued to talk about transparency, as transparency should be 
talked about because the public's business ought to be public, and when 
there is transparency, there is accountability in government.
  Behind the scenes, the FBI won't provide documents to the Senate 
Judiciary Committee unless we agree to very strict controls and strict 
secrecy. The FBI doesn't want the committee or the committee staff 
talking about what is in these documents to anyone, not even privately 
with witnesses and their attorneys.
  Today, I personally spoke with Director Comey about the terms his 
staff is insisting on as a condition for providing the Clinton 
investigation documents. I want to be clear with the people of Iowa and 
the American public about what I told him and what my position is as 
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for 
oversight of the FBI.
  The committee did not agree to any conditions before the first 
document delivery last month. In fact, nobody at the FBI, Senate 
security, or Senate leadership consulted with me as chairman of that 
committee before accepting the documents addressed to the Judiciary 
Committee. Still, we honored those limits in good faith anyway while we 
tried to get the unclassified material separated from the classified 
material. We honored the limits even though we were not obligated by 
any legal restriction or agreement.

[[Page 13838]]

  The controls of these documents are overkill for this kind of 
unclassified material. The access controls make it unnecessarily 
difficult to use documents and to follow up on the information in those 
documents.
  The most objectionable restriction is that we cannot talk about the 
content of the documents with witnesses and other third parties, such 
as their counsel, even if we do it in a nonpublic way, and that 
substantially interferes with the Senate's ability to continue its 
constitutional oversight of the executive branch. So the majority 
leader and I each wrote to Director Comey asking for a separate set of 
unclassified documents. Director Comey did not answer that letter. Then 
the FBI released, through the Freedom of Information Act, virtually all 
of the same unclassified material that it was asking the Senate to 
treat as if it was classified.
  Releasing as much as possible to the public is the right thing to do, 
and I very much appreciate that Director Comey is complying with his 
legal obligation for transparency under the Freedom of Information Act. 
But these document controls imposed before the public release make it 
look as if the FBI is trying to muzzle Congress and keep us from 
working with the information until after the FOIA process is completed. 
So what is Congress forced to do? Congress has to wait in line behind 
FOIA requesters before we get access to information in a way that we 
can actually use it as followup for our investigation. The way this 
process is working sets a very dangerous precedent that could undermine 
transparency, and transparency is essential for accountability in 
government.
  Frankly, this whole process is an end run around our constitutional 
oversight responsibility. If an agency wants to slow-walk Freedom of 
Information requests and give unclassified information to Congress with 
all kinds of strings attached to prevent us from using it, it could 
easily thwart oversight and accountability for months or even years.
  I cannot agree to document controls that prevent the committee from 
doing its job, and the FBI should not ask me to do that.
  We actually offered not to publicly disclose the contents of the 
documents and to treat them as confidential under Senate rules. Why is 
that not enough for the FBI to provide documents before the Freedom of 
Information process is complete so that we can use those very same 
documents in privately questioning witnesses?
  All 100 Senators need to consider the consequences of allowing the 
executive branch to unilaterally impose restrictions on unclassified 
information like this. We must protect the independent powers of the 
Senate from the executive branch overreach.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.

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