Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 337, the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016. We stand here today 3 weeks shy of the FOIA's 50th anniversary to strengthen the law that established the public's right to know. Enacted in 1966, FOIA was the product of more than a decade of work on government secrecy by a predecessor committee to the current Oversight and Government Reform Committee. At the time, FOIA was only the third public information law in the world. It was by far the most far-reaching. FOIA established a right to information, which is commonly known as the public's right to know. S. 337 reaffirms the public's right to know and puts in place several reforms to stop agencies from slowly eroding the effectiveness of using FOIA to exercise that right. This bill is a bipartisan effort to improve the public's access to information and transparency in the Federal Government. I would like to thank Senators Cornyn, Grassley, and Leahy for their hard work that they put into writing and passing this bill. I would also like to thank Representative Darrell Issa and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings for their work on the House bill, H.R. 653, which passed in January. Through all of our combined efforts, I believe that this is the best bill we can send to the President's desk.…”