[Congressional Record: October 20, 2009 (Senate)]
[Page S10544-S10559]
                      
 
 DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010--CONFERENCE 
                           REPORT--Continued

[...]

  Mr. LEAHY. [...]
  Mr. President, I commend the Senate for enacting the Leahy-Cornyn 
OPEN FOIA Act--a commonsense bill to promote more openness regarding 
statutory exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act, FOIA--as part 
of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, H.R. 2892. 
This FOIA reform measure builds upon the work that Senator Cornyn and I 
began several years ago to reinvigorate and strengthen FOIA by enacting 
the first major reforms to that law in more than a decade.
  The Freedom of Information Act has served as perhaps the most 
important Federal law to protect the public's right to know for more 
than four decades. The OPEN FOIA Act will help to ensure that FOIA 
remains a meaningful tool to help future generations of Americans 
access government information.
  The OPEN FOIA Act will make certain that when Congress provides for a 
statutory exemption to FOIA in new legislation, Congress states its 
intention to do so explicitly and clearly. In recent years, we have 
witnessed a growing number of so-called ``FOIA (b)(3) exemptions'' in 
proposed legislation--often in very ambiguous terms--to the detriment 
of the American public's right to know.
  During a recent FOIA oversight hearing held by the Judiciary 
Committee, the president and CEO of the Associated Press, Tom Curley, 
testified that legislative exemptions to FOIA ``constitute a very large 
black hole in our open records law.'' The Sunshine in Government 
Initiative, a coalition of media groups dedicated to improving 
government transparency, has identified approximately 250 different 
statutory exemptions to FOIA that are used by Federal agencies to deny 
Americans' FOIA requests. This is an alarming statistic that should 
concern all of us, regardless of party affiliation or ideology.
  By enacting the OPEN FOIA Act, Congress has taken an important step 
towards shining more light on the process of creating legislative 
exemptions to FOIA, so that our government will be more open and 
accountable to the American people. I thank Senators Lieberman, Graham 
and Cornyn, and Representative Price, for working with me on this 
measure. I also thank the distinguished chairmen and ranking members of 
the Senate and House Appropriations Committees--Senators Inouye and 
Cochran and Representatives Obey and Lewis--for their support of this 
open government measure.
  President Obama--who supported the OPEN FOIA Act when he was in the 
Senate--has demonstrated his commitment to enacting this measure, as 
have the many FOIA, open government and media organizations that have 
tirelessly supported this measure since it was first introduced in 
2005, including OpenTheGovernmnet.org, the Sunshine in Government 
Initiative, the National Security Archive and the American Civil 
Liberties Union.
  I have said many times before--during both Democratic and Republican 
administrations--that freedom of information is neither a Democratic 
issue nor a Republican issue. It is an American issue. I commend the 
Congress for taking this significant step to reinvigorate FOIA and I 
urge the President to promptly sign this provision into law.

[...]

  Mr. McCAIN. [...]
  I am also pleased this conference report does contain a provision 
that will allow the Secretary of Defense to prohibit the disclosure of 
detainee photographs under the Freedom of Information Act if he 
certifies that release of the photos would endanger U.S. citizens, 
members of the Armed Forces, or U.S. Government employees deployed 
outside the United States.

[...]