David Schweikert: “To the gentleman from Hawaii, whom I have not actually had the chance to make friends with yet, you are actually hitting…”

“To the gentleman from Hawaii, whom I have not actually had the chance to make friends with yet, you are actually hitting on one really good point: If there is data being used by bad actors, shouldn't we all know it? The way the EPA operates right now with their keeping their data sets secret, none of you are going to get to know that. That is actually what this piece of legislation fixes. If there is going to be data of groups that are bad actors--industries that you consider dodgy-- wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to have that data available for everyone, whether you be on the right or whether you be on the left, so it can be refined by sunshine? so it can be reviewed and meshed up against other data sets? If you believe that making information public refines it, if you believe public policy should be made by public data and public data should be available in the making of public policy, you like this piece of legislation. What is so fascinating in the debate we have had this time and last year is that I have a number of memos, demand letters, threats of subpoenas from when the left in this body was in both the majority and the minority, but there was a Republican President who was demanding this type of legislation. Let's try something new around here: a little bit of intellectual consistency.…”