SEC Exempt From FOI Requests

"It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood ."--James Madison

Congress recently passed another 2000+ page bill to "reform" (actually it institutionalized "too big to fail" companies) Wall Street.  But the very same bill specifically exempts the Securities and Exchange Commission from Freedom of Information Act requests.  Patrick Leahy (D) the senior senator from Vermont vigorously pushed for passage of this bill...but never read, much less understood what it would do, just as most Congressmen and Senators didn't read the provisions of ObamaCare.  Now he's whining that it wasn't intended to exempt the SEC from FOI requests. 

The Freedom of Information Act is our nation’s premier open government law, and a powerful guardian of the public’s right to know. The Wall Street reform bill that has now become law makes great strides toward enhancing transparency in our financial system. However, I am concerned that an overly broad Freedom of Information Act exemption, originally drafted in the House of Representatives and which was included in the final law, is contrary to the very important goals of the Wall Street Reform bill – restoring accountability and transparency to our financial markets. The SEC should immediately issue guidance narrowly interpreting this FOIA exemption in a manner that is both consistent with the President’s policy of government transparency and with Congressional intent. I will work with the Obama administration and others in Congress to ensure that the SEC remains subject to FOIA and accountable to the American people.

Just as Nancy Pelosi said about ObamaCare: 

You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting.


But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy. [emphasis added]

Yet, once more, we have a huge piece of legislation that will fundamentally change how things are done in this country, yet none of the legislators actually understand what is in the bill, but more importantly JUST DONT UNDERSTAND it's ramifications.  Not even the bills sponsors understand the bill,

"No one will know until this is actually in place how it works," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., of the Senate's slapdash financial reform bill. He ought to know: He co-sponsored the bill along with Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

 I would say that if you don't understand the damn thing, or don't understand what it will do, DONT PASS IT YOU MORONS!!! Congress just doesn't understand what it has done, what it is doing.   They no longer have the support of voters yet continue to pass legislation they neither understand nor have read.