Is that just by protocol or do you really not have a position on this?

it is a horrific example of the worst kind of totalitarian justice, frankly, and it needs to be singled out and condemned.

the President issued the Executive Order... directing agencies to err on the side of disclosure rather than secrecy.

he had the gall to actually try to practice law and represent a defendant falsely accused on trumped up charges.

That takes a little time which could add to the backlog not because anyone is trying to prevent information from getting into public hands but because actually we are trying to protect the innocent and sensitive material?

Do you believe that there is some lesson in that?

A Member of Congress from the State Virginia, Opening Statement.

a reversal, I might add, of the Bush era policy, which certainly favored secrecy led by the distinguished Vice President, at the time, Dick Cheney.

we can't frame this as an either/or. Either we pursue our self-interest very callously and turn a blind eye to all this human rights stuff, or we pursue this high moral ground at the expense of our self-interest. That's a false choice.

I personally find the comparison invidious, and upon any examination lacking in any serious comparison.

President Obama was trying to protect the security of our troops.

I actually believe there is a record of enormous transparency that is unprecedented in the Obama Administration.

agencies reduced the FOIA backlog, this is a fact, by 40 percent, eliminating 55,000 backlogged FOIA requests.

First of all, Congress provided for that?

A lot of our economic competitors in the world don't have FOIA.

We can't be delusional about how much, but--and maybe it had counterproductive impacts, as well.

Did we not also put some money into advanced battery manufacturing?

So it went up, not down, under President Obama?