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December 12, 2006
Senator Reid:We, the members of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, a national organization comprised of state freedom of information groups from across the country, were dismayed to learn recently that in your first hours as Majority Leader, you plan to usher in a new era of leadership in Washington – with a closed-door meeting. After all of the missteps of the past few years punctuated by an administration seemingly obsessed with secrecy, have we learned nothing? The fall campaigns that brought your party into power were resplendent with high-minded talk of transparency. Democrats across the nation won race after race in part by decrying the secrecy of the past few years, and promised to do better. “I think it’s very important we have openness,” you said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” on Nov. 12. You said that means “finding out what government is doing.” So, in its first official action, the 110th Congress is to kick off this new era by closing the doors on a meeting of all 100 senators in the old Senate chamber in the Capitol. The secret gathering will “allow senators an opportunity to meet before the Senate is in session and before any official legislative business is considered,” your office said. "The American people made clear they are tired of partisanship and gridlock in Washington." The American people also indicated their weariness with needless, reflexive secrecy and the corruption that it breeds. As you know, while the Senate's Democratic and Republican caucuses often meet separately and in private for lunches and meetings throughout the congressional session, those are intra-party gatherings. Such closed-door meetings of the full Senate that exclude the news media and the public are exceedingly rare, and most often involve matters of national security or impeachments. Here, no reason beyond collegiality and candor are offered for the secrecy. Neither is a sufficient excuse for closing your first official gathering as Majority Leader, an act of brazen secrecy that sets a terrible precedent from Day One of the 110th Congress. In the past few years, yours has been a consistent voice in opposing such secrecy. You and your colleagues quite rightly spoke often in opposition to the administration’s embrace of secrecy and promised that, if you were in charge, things would be run differently. Now, before you even assume the Majority Leader’s position, your office offers the typical mealy-mouthed defenses for indefensible secrecy. Your staff said that the planned joint caucus will not amount to a legislative session because no business will be conducted and that it will probably occur before the new Congress officially opens. Such legal finery is a great disappointment and a retreat from the pledges of transparency that helped your party gain power. A Congress tarnished by scandal after scandal, lower in public esteem than at any point in modern history, can ill afford to hide behind closed doors. Excessive government secrecy is the enemy of democracy. Secrecy cripples public debate. Citizens cannot understand, monitor, and evaluate public policies if they are kept in the dark about the actions of their elected representatives. A closed-door meeting of the entire United States Senate makes a mockery of the institution. We can’t imagine a more hypocritical opening act from a majority that needs desperately to restore honor to the halls of Congress. Imagine, instead, doing precisely the opposite: conducting a thoughtful, candid, public meeting. It’s what you were elected to do, after all. And what a message it would send! Sincerely,
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