Robert Torricelli: “I first thank my colleagues who have joined me in this effort today, most significantly, Senator Specter of…”

“I first thank my colleagues who have joined me in this effort today, most significantly, Senator Specter of Pennsylvania, who has led this effort previously and makes this a genuinely bipartisan effort to share this information with the American people, Senator Bumpers of Arkansas, who has argued so passionately on this cause previously, and, of course, the ranking member of the intelligence committee, Senator Kerrey of Nebraska. Mr. President, I know that many Government agencies would have liked the right to keep the information of their expenditures on a proprietary basis. This logic must have occurred to the Defense Department. Indeed, it was difficult for the Defense Department, at the end of the cold war, to begin to share some of the programs, exhibit some of the technology and the assets it possessed that previously had remained secret. This Congress and the leadership of this Government made a judgment that the people could not make the proper decisions about their elected representatives and we could not make the proper judgments for them without complete access to information.”