Mr. Chairman, the report cards we tabled last week show that there is a greater use of extensions--that is, we are using more and more time in order to service the requesters.
There are probably many causes of that, but one is what I would call a culture that is disclosure-adverse. The first reflex in the system is to find reasons not to disclose or exemptions to apply. It should be the reverse. That certainly was the intent of the statute when it was first adopted in 1983.
It's not new. It's not recent. My predecessor called it a “culture of secrecy”. I don't like that term, because it implies a complicity and an organized effort to keep everything secret, and I don't think that's the case. But the reflex is not to transparency. It's to non-disclosure.