[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 4167]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, throughout his career in the Senate, the 
senior Senator from Iowa has styled himself as an advocate for 
transparency in government. A number of years ago he said:

       I believe in the principle of open government. Lack of 
     transparency in the public policy process leads to cynicism 
     and distrust of public officials. . . . As a matter of 
     principle, the American people need to be made aware of any 
     action that prevents a matter from being considered by their 
     elected Senators.

  He reiterated his beliefs just a few days ago here in this Chamber, 
and here is what he said last week:

       The principle of government transparency is one that does 
     not expire. . . . Open government is good government. And 
     Americans have a right to a government that is accountable to 
     its people.

  So Senator Grassley's commitment to transparency is as shallow as the 
shallowest puddle you could find.
  All it took was one phone call, obviously, from the Republican leader 
for Senator Grassley to abandon any pretense of transparency and shut 
the American people out of the Supreme Court nomination process--shut 
them out.
  This is the same Senator who once said, ``As a matter of principle, 
the American people need to be made aware of any action that prevents a 
matter from being considered by their elected Senators.''
  Nothing that Senator Grassley has done with respect to the Supreme 
Court vacancy meets his own standard for transparency.
  There was no transparency when the Judiciary Committee chairman and 
his Republican committee members shut Democrats out and met with the 
Republican leader behind closed doors. There was no transparency when 
he twisted the arms of his own committee members to sign a loyalty 
oath, again behind closed doors. There was no transparency when he 
sought to move a public committee meeting behind closed doors just to 
avoid talking about the Supreme Court nomination. And there was 
certainly no transparency on Tuesday--yesterday--when at 8 o'clock in 
the morning he met downstairs with Judge Merrick Garland in the private 
Senate Dining Room moments before slipping out the back door to avoid 
reporters. This is how CNN reported it: ``The Iowa Senator left the 
high-profile but out-of-sight meeting via a backdoor that leads to his 
private `hideaway.'''
  One television station in Iowa put it this way: ``Grassley evaded 
reporters.''
  This is the same Senator who once supported cameras in Federal 
courtrooms, including the Supreme Court. Why? To increase transparency, 
so he said. But Senator Grassley only wants transparency to apply to 
others, I guess not to himself. When it comes to transparency, his 
attitude is strictly: ``Do as I say, not as I do.''
  He won't even apply a degree of that same openness as he blocks a 
nominee to the highest Court in the land. There will be no transparency 
if Senator Grassley fails to call an open hearing where Chief Justice 
Garland can present himself to the American people.
  I have had people ask me: Why wouldn't there be a hearing? Well, it 
is obvious. They are all afraid. The chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee is afraid that this good man, if the American people see him, 
will understand why he is a nomination that couldn't be better. They 
are afraid to allow this man to be seen by the American public. Talking 
about transparency, there won't be any if the Republican Senators 
aren't going to be able to even have a vote on the nomination.
  All of this that has been going on is not like the Senator Grassley 
who I have served with for more than three decades. By carrying out the 
present leader's failed strategy to undermine this Court, the Senator 
from Iowa is undermining years of his own hard work in pushing for more 
open government. All that he has done talking about transparency is 
gone.
  Senator Grassley should take his own medicine and stop retreating 
behind closed doors with private conversations that shut the American 
people out of the important confirmation process. If the senior Senator 
from Iowa truly believes in transparency, he should simply do his job 
and give Merrick Garland a hearing and a vote.
  Mr. President, there appears to be no one seeking the floor. Will the 
Presiding Officer announce the business of the day.

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