Cornyn on open government

I am in Washington, D.C., at a conference of newspaper association lawyers, lobbyists and directors, where we heard today from U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), co-sponsor with U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) of several bills aimed at strengthening public access to government information. A strong advocate of open government, Cornyn's efforts as former Texas attorney general to promote open government earned him the 2001 James Madison Award from the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. In his comments today, he reported nothing new about the FOIA bills, which you can find covered in some detail on his OPEN Government Act Web page. One quote among his comments that stood out for me was this: "Government too often regards [FOIA compliance] as a burden. My attitude is that it is a government's first obligation."