Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce the Government Secrecy Reform Act. I would like to begin by thanking my cosponsors, Senators Helms, Lott, Daschle, Thompson, Collins, and Schumer. The legislation that we introduce today is intended to implement the core recommendation of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy: a statute establishing the principles to govern the classification and declassification of information. The Federal government has a legitimate interest in maintaining secrets in order to fulfill its Constitutional charge to ``provide for the common defense.'' At the same time, this interest must be balanced by the public's right to be informed of government activities. The Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, which I chaired, found a secrecy system out of balance: one which has lost the confidence of many inside and outside the Government. Consequently, information needing protection does not always receive it, while innocuous information is classified and remains classified. The Commission found in its 1997 report that ``[t]he best way to ensure that secrecy is respected, and that the most important secrets remain secret, is for secrecy to be returned to its limited but necessary role. Secrets can be protected more effectively if secrecy is reduced overall.''”