Political Quotes

“today, I joined Senator Cornyn in reintroducing the Faster FOIA Act of 2011, a bipartisan bill to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act, FOIA. Last week, the House Republican leadership stripped these FOIA provisions from legislation that unanimously passed the Senate in May as part of a procedural maneuver to address unrelated issues surrounding the debt limit. I urge the Senate to promptly reaffirm its bipartisan commitment to open government and to once again pass the Leahy-Cornyn Faster FOIA Act of 2011 so that this good government bill can be enacted into law. The Faster FOIA Act enjoys broad bipartisan support from across the political spectrum. The Senate unanimously passed this bill in May, after the Judiciary Committee favorably reported the bill by voice vote. Recently, more than 35 transparency organizations urged the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to act on this legislation. On July 26, the Washington Post editorialized that the House should promptly enact this bipartisan bill to improve the FOIA process. Senator Cornyn and I first introduced the Faster FOIA Act in 2005 to address the growing problem of excessive FOIA delays within our Federal agencies. During the intervening years, the problem of excessive FOIA delays has not gone away. We reintroduced this bill in 2010, and the Senate unanimously passed it last year. The current bill is the most recent product of our bipartisan work to help reinvigorate FOIA.…”