[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.