[国会记录第160卷147号(2014年12月4日星期四)][参议院][第S6343页]总统先生，信息自由法案是我国最重要的法律之一。詹姆斯·麦迪逊说，人们必须用知识所赋予的力量武装自己。“近50年来，《信息自由法》为美国人提供了获取政府信息的途径，确保他们有权知道政府在做什么。《信息自由法改进法》推进了这一基本民主原则。因此，我敦促所有参议员毫不拖延地支持《2014年信息自由法改进法案》。这项立法建立在总统在2009年的历史性行政命令的基础上，该命令要求联邦机构在考虑根据《信息自由法》发布政府信息时采取“公开推定”。我们的法案将人民的利益放在政府所做的事情的优先位置，将减少在没有可预见的危害的情况下过度使用豁免来隐瞒信息。它将提供信息供公众查阅，并在网上提供经常要求的文件。它将为政府新闻处(OGIS)提供更多的独立性和权力，以进行其工作。 I believe this legislation reaffirms the fundamental premise of FOIA, that government information belongs to all Americans. Supporting these commonsense reforms will help open the government to the 300 million Americans it serves. The bill is supported by more than 70 public interest groups that advocate for government transparency. The Sunshine in Government Initiative, said the Leahy-Cornyn bill ``strengthens government transparency by limiting the ability of agencies to hide decades old documents from the public.'' At the Judiciary Committee's business meeting to consider this legislation, which was reported to the full Senate with unanimous support, Ranking Member Grassley said the FOIA Improvement Act ``opens wide the curtains and provides more sunlight on the Federal government.'' Senator Cornyn, my partner for many years on government transparency, noted our bipartisan efforts ``to open up the government and make it more consumer and customer friendly.'' I thank both Senators for their work on this legislation. We often talk about the need for government transparency, and many also note how rare it is that Democrats and Republicans can come together on any legislation. We have accomplished both with the FOIA Improvement Act. It was drafted in a bipartisan fashion after a long and thoughtful process of consultation. This week, we can pass this bill in the Senate and send it over to the House, where I am confident that it will pass, and send it to the President to sign before the end of the year. There is no reason to delay this legislation, which has broad support from a range of stakeholders, costs very little to implement and will improve access to government for all Americans. I urge the Senate to pass the FOIA Improvement Act now, without delay. ____________________