Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, compliance with the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act is vital in preserving the history of our government and ensuring its continued transparency. Unfortunately, too frequently of late, Congress has heard examples of agencies and individuals failing to comply with the basic provisions of Federal recordkeeping law. The most recent illustration is the IRS which, according to the Archivist of the United States, failed to follow the law by not disclosing the potential loss of Federal records relating to Lois Lerner. In another instance, the Oversight Committee learned that the then- Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez used his personal email account almost 1,200 times over a 4-year period to conduct official business. We should not tolerate this type of behavior. Democracy requires transparency, Mr. Speaker. The public has a right to know the actions their government takes on their behalf. This principle of a right to know has been enshrined in numerous statutes at the Federal, State, and local levels. These include open meeting laws, Freedom of Information Act processes, and records laws. At the national level, two bedrock transparency laws are the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act.…”