Political Quotes

“I thank Senator Brown for his interest and support for this legislation. I agree that the safety and soundness of our financial system and financial institutions depends on our financial regulators' ability to perform effective oversight and supervision of financial institutions. I also agree that the free flow of information between regulators and financial institutions is important to this process. Exemption 8 was intended by Congress, and has been interpreted by the courts, to be very broadly construed to ensure the security of financial institutions and to safeguard the relationship between financial institutions and their supervising agencies. The proposed amendments to FOIA are not intended to undermine the broad protection in exemption 8 or to undermine the integrity of the supervisory examination process. In addition, I note that some information that the government may withhold under exemption 8 is also protected under exemption 4, which exempts from disclosure commercial and financial information that is privileged or confidential. Exemption 4 covers information prohibited from disclosure under the Trade Secrets Act and similar laws, and as such does not provide for discretionary disclosure under FOIA. As with other exemptions that are based on separate legal restrictions, it is understood that the foreseeable harm standard will not apply to most of the information falling under exemption 4.…”