[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. [...]