Ah, those deep, dark secrets in the Senate

TROXLER E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 25, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- If you really want to draw a crowd in the Capitol, suggest doing something in secret. (If you want to keep people away, hold an eight-hour open meeting with testimony from a bunch of experts.)

This explains the attention devoted to a sideshow held here Wednesday morning. Our state Senate is thinking about holding secret committee meetings when the topic is preventing "espionage, sabotage, attack or other acts of terrorism."

These meetings would be so super-duper secret that even the votes could stay under seal, even after a bill became public. Thanks to a loophole, all 40 senators also could declare themselves a "committee of the whole" and hide the whole kaboodle for a while. (The final passage of a bill still must be public -- there can be no secret laws.)

The president of the Senate, who is elected every two years by its members, would have sole power to decide which committees meet in secret. He or she could keep the committee's records secret up to five years at a time, with unlimited renewals.

Now, before we get into a big discussion of why this violates the spirit of democracy, open government, the Florida Constitution and that kind of stuff, all of which is true, the first thing to say is that ... this is silly.

The senators themselves know they are overreaching. Some of them felt uncomfortable sitting up there on the dais, claiming the power to cast votes without the citizens knowing how they voted. But they could not find an elegant way out. Who wants to look soft on terrorism? These are dangerous times.

It needs to be made clear that the Senate has no idea whatsoever what kind of top-secret information it might want to discuss. None. It just wants the power to do it.

Maybe the senators see themselves poring over schematics of nuclear power plants, or discussing troop deployment with the Joint Chiefs. Maybe the CIA will come down and give them friendly little briefings. (Make sure to sweep the room for bugs!)

These new rules were discussed at a meeting of, naturally enough, the Rules and Calendar Committee. Sen. John Laurent, R-Bartow, was especially worried about the idea of secret votes. He offered an amendment to make the votes public. It failed.

The 15 senators spent a lot of time debating with whom the president is supposed to "consult" before imposing secrecy. The original wording said simply, "appropriate authorities." The senators changed that to "appropriate law enforcement, public health, emergency management and/or security authorities."

But the truth is that with sole power, the president could consult an astrologer. Sen. Don Sullivan, R-Seminole, suggested the president should have to notify the Senate before doing it. Democrats on the committee suggested the president should have to notify the opposite political party, too. No dice.

The irony is that there already are ways to protect truly secret information. Besides, if the attorney general, or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, or local police need a change in state law to fight terrorism, that law is going to be public anyway.

The last time the Senate tried meeting in secret, in 1967, the senators' real intention was to discuss something blatantly political -- the redrawing of their own districts.

The entire history of the Florida Legislature shows that public scrutiny is the only check and balance on its abuses. Otherwise, to name just two recent examples in which public knowledge trumped mischief, we already would be pumping untreated water into Florida's aquifer, and selling your driver's license photo to commercial companies with friends in the Legislature. Do you honestly trust the Legislature to act unchecked? Do you honestly think that their loophole of "fighting terrorism" will not grow and grow?

You know what? Each of Florida's 40 senators is an independent power base, and extremely conservative about giving up power, either to a president-boss, or to each other. Now that the fun is over, maybe wiser heads will prevail when the full Senate decides.

-- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright