FOIA Provisions

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. I thank Senator Leahy for his interest in these matters, and I am pleased we were able to work out an agreement to strike these provisions and move forward with consideration of the DRIVE Act. I look forward to working with you and Senator Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, on any future proposals to amend the Freedom of Information Act.

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Mr. THUNE. For the reasons you stated, I agree that if enacted into law, nothing in Section 32003 exempts or is intended to exempt information under the Freedom of Information Act. I would, however, just offer two comments to explain to my colleague the rationale for and limits of the modified provision. First, the commerce committee has received information from several objective sources, including the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General, and the law enforcement community, identifying concerns with the accuracy of the scoring analysis performed by FMCSA as part of the CSA program. As noted by GAO, the manner in which scores are calculated under the program ``creates the likelihood that many SMS scores do not represent an accurate or precise safety assessment for a carrier.'' Accordingly, the bill proposes to withdraw this potentially misleading analysis from public review temporarily, until the program is reviewed and corrected. Nevertheless, as underscored by subsection 32003(c), the underlying ``[i]nspection and violation information'' submitted to FMCSA under the program ``shall remain available for public viewing.''

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