[Congressional Record: May 25, 2011 (House)]
[Page H3649-H3680]
                        



                              {time}  2000
 
   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2012--Continued

                Amendment No. 47 Offered by Mrs. Maloney

  The Acting CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 47 
printed in House Report 112-88.
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.
  The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
  The text of the amendment is as follows:

       Page 507, line 21, insert after ``department'' the 
     following: ``that would reveal flight patterns, tactical 
     techniques, or tactical procedures''.

  The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 276, the gentlewoman 
from New York (Mrs. Maloney) and a Member opposed each will control 5 
minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from New York.
  Mrs. MALONEY. This amendment is about the need to continue to make 
information available to the public, to keep our uniformed military 
safe, and ensure tax dollars are not wasted on aircraft with serious 
performance and maintenance issues.
  It would simply narrow section 1081 of the act under consideration, 
and this amendment would ensure the military cannot hide subpar 
maintenance of military aircraft or other preventable shortcomings from 
disclosure under the guise of keeping important tactical information 
from our enemies. It ensures an adequate balance between the Defense 
Department's appropriate need to protect tactical information while 
ensuring the public can learn, for example, when the military is not 
putting our pilots in the best maintained aircraft in the world.
  Just ask the parents of Jeffrey Smith, with whom I have spoken, one 
of 45 pilots who died in noncombat accidents in Harrier jets. The Los 
Angeles Times' reporter Kevin Sack pored through military investigative 
records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act to show military 
investigators believe a small shard of plastic clogged the fuel line of 
Smith's jet as it tore down the runway, leading the jet to crash at the 
end of the runway. The investigative series used the military's 
investigative records to show other problems with the Harrier jet, 
eventually winning a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Such 
reporting does nothing to reveal tactical or strategic advantages to 
our adversaries, but it could save the lives of our pilots, and it goes 
a long way to ensure our airmen and women are given the very best 
equipment to protect our Nation.
  This amendment simply allows effective public oversight. And yet H.R. 
1540 would allow the military to exempt or hide exactly this kind of 
information. The exemption to the Freedom of Information Act in section 
1081 is extremely broad and would block access to information of public 
interest unnecessarily.
  As in the tragic death of Jeffrey Smith, some of this information is 
of important public interest. The public also has a vital interest in 
understanding how well the aircraft their taxpayer dollars buy are 
performing. The uniformed military also benefits from public scrutiny 
of complicated multibillion dollar weapons systems in which they trust 
their lives.
  This amendment is supported by many good government groups, and my 
amendment makes a simple but critically important clarification that 
the information from the military flight operations quality assurance 
systems that is exempted is information that would reveal flight 
patterns, tactical techniques, or tactical procedures. My amendment 
would exempt the truly sensitive information that allows reconstruction 
of flights that could reveal detailed flight tactics and the parameters 
of aircraft flight envelopes to enemies that could adapt accordingly.
  It appropriately narrows the exemption to apply particular criteria 
to strike the right balance between safeguarding military flights and 
tactics and the public's right to know if the equipment is faulty, as 
was in the case of the Harrier jets.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
  The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Virginia is recognized for 5 
minutes.

                              {time}  2020

  Mr. FORBES. Once again the gentlelady raises a couple of very good 
points. We are all concerned about transparency. And as the chairman of 
the Subcommittee on Readiness, I can tell you that I live every day 
examining and being concerned that we have our fleet in a ready state 
to defend this country.
  But, Mr. Chairman, I'm also concerned about this: We fight oftentimes 
to keep our adversaries from gaining all the information that they try 
to gain about our military. We fight to protect our computers, and 
sometimes we don't succeed. But also at times we just have to step back 
and say we just give away way too much information.
  And the gentlelady is right, there is a possibility--however remote 
it might be--that we could find something in this data that may save a 
life. That is a possibility, but the far more likely scenario is that 
we will give away crucial information that could jeopardize our pilots, 
jeopardize our fleet, and also jeopardize the men and women that they 
fly to protect. We could jeopardize disclosed fleet readiness rates, 
critical parts failure rates, and other sensitive logistics and 
sustainment data that we just shouldn't be giving out.
  So, Mr. Chairman, while I wholeheartedly agree with the gentlelady's 
concern about transparency and readiness, I also realize that to run 
the greatest military in the world there are some pieces of 
information, some data points, that we don't want to make available to 
those who may use them against us. I think this is one of those, and I 
hope that we will defeat this amendment.
  Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. MALONEY. I appreciate the gentleman's sensitivity. I certainly 
share his concern in protecting data points that in any way would 
reveal information about our aircraft and ways that people could combat 
our aircraft. But the gentlemen represents, I know, many military 
families, and I'm sure you know as I do many military people who have 
died in aircraft that had faulty situations. For example, the Harrier 
aircraft that had 45 crashes because of faulty equipment, that if the 
public and others had known about, the military I believe would have 
been brought to stop the use of this and to save their lives.

[[Page H3652]]

  So I feel that we have the same goal. I certainly want to protect 
information that is very critical to our flight patterns and our 
military; but for information that is not such as that, but faulty 
equipment, that should be made available. And we feel that we have that 
balance in this amendment.
  Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Chairman, could I inquire as to the time remaining.
  The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman has 3\1/2\ minutes remaining.
  Mr. FORBES. Once again, I appreciate the gentlelady. And she is 
absolutely right, I represent a lot of military families. I just got 
back last week from talking to a lot of men and women in Afghanistan 
who are serving there; and I can tell you overwhelmingly, when you talk 
to those families, one of the things that came out just recently as we 
had the whole situation with the operation that killed bin Laden, over 
and over and over again those families were telling me the same thing--
too many people are giving too much information and saying too much, 
and they're not protecting the people in our family who are fighting to 
defend this country.
  And I would agree with the gentlelady that we need to be on top of 
this readiness issue, but it's not just our aircraft. It's our ships 
and the vessels that we have there. And I can assure her that our 
subcommittees on the Armed Services Committee, both the chairmen and 
the ranking members, are doing just that to make sure those vessels are 
safe, to make sure that information is available when it's needed, but 
at the same time, Mr. Chairman, to make sure that we're not giving out 
fleet readiness rates to people who could use them against us, critical 
parts failures to people who could use them against us, and other 
sensitive logistics and sustainment data which her amendment does not 
protect.
  Mr. Chairman, once again, I hope we will defeat this amendment and 
protect this sensitive information.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. MALONEY. May I inquire as to the time remaining.
  The Acting CHAIR. The gentlewoman has 30 seconds remaining.
  Mrs. MALONEY. I support this amendment. Instead of blocking access to 
all of this information, a more reasonable approach is to allow the DOD 
to perform these missions to maintain a tactical and technical 
advantage and to maintain effective, efficient, and safe aircraft units 
and aircraft tactical information without unnecessarily withholding 
information about the safety--in this case of aircraft--that the public 
and the pilots and others have a right to know. So I support this 
amendment, and I urge my colleagues to likewise support it.
  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Chairman, I just renew my opposition to the amendment 
and I hope we will defeat it.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The Acting CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney).
  The question was taken; and the Acting Chair announced that the noes 
appeared to have it.
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.
  The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII, further 
proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from New York 
will be postponed.



                Amendment No. 47 Offered by Mrs. Maloney

  The Acting CHAIR. The unfinished business is the demand for a 
recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from New York 
(Mrs. Maloney) on which further proceedings were postponed and on which 
the noes prevailed by voice vote.
  The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.
  The Clerk redesignated the amendment.


                             Recorded Vote

  The Acting CHAIR. A recorded vote has been demanded.
  A recorded vote was ordered.
  The Acting CHAIR. This is a 2-minute vote.

[[Page H3725]]

  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 91, 
noes 329, not voting 11, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 358]

                                AYES--91

     Ackerman
     Andrews
     Baldwin
     Bass (CA)
     Berkley
     Berman
     Braley (IA)
     Capps
     Capuano
     Cardoza
     Carson (IN)
     Chu
     Clarke (MI)
     Clarke (NY)
     Clay
     Cleaver
     Clyburn
     Cohen
     Conyers
     Critz
     Cummings
     Davis (IL)
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Deutch
     Edwards
     Ellison
     Engel
     Eshoo
     Farr
     Fattah
     Frank (MA)
     Fudge
     Garamendi
     Grijalva
     Gutierrez
     Hastings (FL)
     Higgins
     Hinchey
     Hirono
     Holt
     Honda
     Kaptur
     Kildee
     Kissell
     Kucinich
     Lee (CA)
     Lewis (GA)
     Lofgren, Zoe
     Maloney
     Markey
     Matsui
     McClintock
     McDermott
     McGovern
     Michaud
     Miller, George
     Moore
     Nadler
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Pelosi
     Pingree (ME)
     Polis
     Rangel
     Richardson
     Roybal-Allard
     Rush
     Sanchez, Linda T.
     Sanchez, Loretta
     Schakowsky
     Schrader
     Serrano
     Sewell
     Slaughter
     Speier
     Thompson (CA)
     Thompson (MS)
     Tierney
     Tonko
     Towns
     Tsongas
     Velazquez
     Waters
     Watt
     Waxman
     Weiner
     Welch
     Wilson (FL)
     Woolsey
     Yarmuth

                               NOES--329

     Adams
     Aderholt
     Akin
     Alexander
     Altmire
     Amash
     Austria
     Baca
     Bachmann
     Bachus
     Barletta
     Barrow
     Bartlett
     Barton (TX)
     Bass (NH)
     Becerra
     Benishek
     Berg
     Biggert
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bishop (GA)
     Bishop (NY)
     Bishop (UT)
     Black
     Blackburn
     Blumenauer
     Bonner
     Bono Mack
     Boren
     Boswell
     Brady (PA)
     Brady (TX)
     Brooks
     Broun (GA)
     Brown (FL)
     Buchanan
     Bucshon
     Buerkle
     Burgess
     Burton (IN)
     Butterfield
     Calvert
     Camp
     Campbell
     Canseco
     Cantor
     Capito
     Carnahan
     Carney
     Carter
     Cassidy
     Castor (FL)
     Chabot
     Chaffetz
     Chandler
     Cicilline
     Coble
     Coffman (CO)
     Cole
     Conaway
     Connolly (VA)
     Cooper
     Costa
     Costello
     Courtney
     Cravaack
     Crawford
     Crenshaw
     Crowley
     Cuellar
     Culberson
     Davis (CA)
     Davis (KY)
     DeLauro
     Denham
     Dent
     DesJarlais
     Diaz-Balart
     Dicks
     Doggett
     Dold
     Donnelly (IN)
     Doyle
     Dreier
     Duffy
     Duncan (SC)
     Duncan (TN)
     Ellmers
     Emerson
     Farenthold
     Fincher
     Fitzpatrick
     Fleischmann
     Fleming
     Flores
     Forbes
     Fortenberry
     Foxx
     Franks (AZ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Gallegly
     Gardner
     Garrett
     Gerlach
     Gibbs
     Gibson
     Gingrey (GA)
     Gohmert
     Gonzalez
     Goodlatte
     Gosar
     Gowdy
     Granger
     Graves (GA)
     Graves (MO)
     Green, Al
     Green, Gene
     Griffin (AR)
     Griffith (VA)
     Grimm
     Guinta
     Guthrie
     Hall
     Hanabusa
     Hanna
     Harper
     Harris
     Hartzler
     Hayworth
     Heck
     Heinrich
     Hensarling
     Herger
     Herrera Beutler
     Himes
     Hinojosa
     Holden
     Hoyer
     Huelskamp
     Huizenga (MI)
     Hultgren
     Hunter
     Hurt
     Inslee
     Israel
     Issa
     Jackson Lee (TX)
     Jenkins
     Johnson (GA)
     Johnson (IL)
     Johnson (OH)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Jordan
     Keating
     Kelly
     Kind
     King (IA)
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Kinzinger (IL)
     Kline
     Labrador
     Lamborn
     Lance
     Landry
     Langevin
     Lankford
     Larsen (WA)
     Larson (CT)
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Latta
     Levin
     Lewis (CA)
     Lipinski
     LoBiondo
     Loebsack
     Lowey
     Lucas
     Luetkemeyer
     Lujan
     Lummis
     Lungren, Daniel E.
     Lynch
     Mack
     Manzullo
     Marchant
     Marino
     Matheson
     McCarthy (CA)
     McCaul
     McCollum
     McCotter
     McHenry
     McIntyre
     McKeon
     McKinley
     McMorris Rodgers
     McNerney
     Meehan
     Meeks
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Miller (MI)
     Miller (NC)
     Miller, Gary
     Moran
     Mulvaney
     Murphy (CT)
     Murphy (PA)
     Myrick
     Napolitano
     Neal
     Neugebauer
     Noem
     Nugent
     Nunes
     Nunnelee
     Olson
     Owens
     Palazzo
     Pastor (AZ)
     Paul
     Paulsen
     Pearce
     Pence
     Perlmutter
     Peters
     Peterson
     Petri
     Pitts
     Platts
     Poe (TX)
     Pompeo
     Posey
     Price (GA)
     Price (NC)
     Quayle
     Quigley
     Rahall
     Reed
     Rehberg
     Reichert
     Renacci
     Reyes
     Ribble
     Richmond
     Rigell
     Rivera
     Roby
     Roe (TN)
     Rogers (AL)
     Rogers (KY)
     Rogers (MI)
     Rohrabacher
     Rokita
     Rooney
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roskam
     Ross (AR)
     Ross (FL)
     Rothman (NJ)
     Royce
     Runyan
     Ruppersberger
     Ryan (OH)
     Ryan (WI)
     Sarbanes
     Scalise
     Schiff
     Schilling
     Schmidt
     Schock
     Schwartz
     Schweikert
     Scott (SC)
     Scott (VA)
     Scott, Austin
     Scott, David
     Sensenbrenner
     Sessions
     Sherman
     Shimkus
     Shuler
     Shuster
     Simpson
     Sires
     Smith (NE)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith (WA)
     Southerland
     Stark
     Stearns
     Stivers
     Stutzman
     Sullivan
     Sutton
     Terry
     Thompson (PA)
     Thornberry
     Tiberi
     Tipton
     Turner
     Upton
     Van Hollen
     Visclosky
     Walberg
     Walden
     Walsh (IL)
     Walz (MN)
     Wasserman Schultz
     Webster
     West
     Westmoreland
     Whitfield
     Wilson (SC)
     Wittman
     Wolf
     Womack
     Woodall
     Wu
     Yoder
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)
     Young (IN)

                             NOT VOTING--11

     Boustany
     Dingell
     Filner
     Flake
     Giffords
     Hastings (WA)
     Jackson (IL)
     Long
     McCarthy (NY)
     Olver
     Payne

                              {time}  1309

  Ms. BROWN of Florida and Mr. LOEBSACK changed their vote from ``aye'' 
to ``no.''
  Ms. WILSON of Florida changed her vote from ``no'' to ``aye.''
  So the amendment was rejected.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.





The unmodified exemption as passed by the House:


     SEC. 1081. EXEMPTION FROM FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT FOR DATA 
                   FILES OF THE MILITARY FLIGHT OPERATIONS QUALITY 
                   ASSURANCE SYSTEMS OF THE MILITARY DEPARTMENTS.

       (a) Exemption.--
       (1) In general.--Chapter 134 of title 10, United States 
     Code, is amended by inserting after section 2254 the 
     following new section:

     ``Sec. 2254a. Data files of military flight operations 
       quality assurance systems: exemption from disclosure under 
       Freedom of Information Act

       ``(a) Authority to Exempt Certain Data Files From 
     Disclosure Under FOIA.--
       ``(1) The Secretary of Defense may exempt information 
     contained in any data file of the military flight operations 
     quality assurance system of a military department from 
     disclosure under section 552(b)(3) of title 5.
       ``(2) In this section, the term `data file' means a file of 
     the military flight operations quality assurance (in this 
     section referred to as `MFOQA') system that contains 
     information acquired or generated by the MFOQA system, 
     including--
       ``(A) any data base containing raw MFOQA data; and
       ``(B) any analysis or report generated by the MFOQA system 
     or which is derived from MFOQA data.
       ``(3) Information that is exempt under paragraph (1) from 
     disclosure under section 552(b)(3) of title 5 shall be exempt 
     from such disclosure even if such information is contained in 
     a data file that is not exempt in its entirety from such 
     disclosure.
       ``(4) The provisions of paragraph (1) may not be superseded 
     except by a provision of law which is enacted after the date 
     of the enactment of this section and which specifically cites 
     and repeals or modifies those provisions.
       ``(b) Regulations.--The Secretary of Defense shall 
     prescribe regulations for the administration of this section. 
     Such regulations shall ensure consistent application of the 
     authority in subsection (a) across the military departments 
     and shall specifically identify officials in each military 
     department who shall be delegated the Secretary's authority 
     under this section.''.
       (2) Clerical amendment.--The table of sections at the 
     beginning of subchapter II of such chapter is amended by 
     inserting after the item relating to section 2254 the 
     following new item:

``2254a. Data files of military flight operations quality assurance 
              systems: exemption from disclosure under Freedom of 
              Information Act.''.
       (b) Applicability.--Section 2254a of title 10, United 
     States Code, as added by subsection (a), shall apply to any 
     information entered into any data file of the military flight 
     operations quality assurance system before, on, or after the 
     date of the enactment of this Act.