Political Quotes

“this week, March 10 to 16, has been designated Sunshine Week. What better time for it this year since President Obama has a brandnew nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and that agency is in desperate need of sunshine and transparency. In the midst of Sunshine Week, I wanted to talk about these very serious issues. First of all, let's go back a little bit. The first day President Obama took office in 2009, the White House Web site declared that his administration would become ``the most open and transparent in history.'' The President issued high-profile orders pledging ``a new era'' and ``an unprecedented level of openness'' across the Federal Government. Those are great goals and great aspirations. Unfortunately, the record--particularly, as I said, at the EPA--is a lot different. President Obama's EPA has earned a reputation for ignoring congressional information requests, ignoring and frustrating FOIA--the Freedom of Information Act--hiding elite e-mails, which is completely contrary to EPA policy, and hiding other important information from the public. Is it in desperate need of a new leader who will reverse these antisunshine, antitransparency practices and build a true culture of transparency and openness. Unfortunately, President Obama's nominee, Gina McCarthy, comes from inside the very troubled agency and she has been directly involved in many of these problem areas. That is why I think we need to talk about these concerns.…”