In an earlier post, I described how the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was repeatedly touted by the White House as the robust handmaiden of transparency, actually slipped in an unprecedented blanket exclusion from FOIA for the SEC.
In a rare bipartisan move, both chambers of Congress recently voted to repeal that exemption. President Obama is expected to sign the repeal into law shortly. Yet it remains a mystery exactly who slipped the exemption in or why. Many lawmakers expressed shock and even outrage after learning about the exemption. But no one has gotten to the bottom of things. Even if we accept as true that most of members of Congress who voted for the bill were unaware of the exemption, it begs the obvious question: don’t you bother to read the laws you vote for?