On the recordOctober 27, 2015
as much as I hate to disagree with my dear friend from California, I will on this amendment. I don't like to see unnecessary exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act. Today I offer an amendment to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act that would remove from the bill an overly broad and wholly unnecessary new FOIA exemption. That new exemption to our Nation's premier transparency law was added without public debate and in a closed session by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Any amendments to the Freedom of Information Act should be considered openly and publicly by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has exclusive jurisdiction over FOIA--not in secret by the Senate Intelligence Committee. I expect that much of the information to be shared with the government under CISA would be protected from disclosure to the general public. A thorough committee process, including consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee, would have made clear that the vast majority of sensitive information to be shared under this bill is already protected from disclosure under existing FOIA exemptions. This includes exemption (b)(4), which protects confidential business and financial information; exemption (b)(6) which protects personal privacy; and exemption (b)(7), which protects information related to law enforcement investigations.…
