A week before Sunshine Week in Washington, D.C., a determined group of newspaper people worked “The Hill” to spread the word about letting the sunshine in for the public we all serve.

Leading off the day, the National Newspaper Association heard from Texas’ own Sen. John Cornyn, who is working hard to break down barriers between government bureaucracies and we the people. He is sponsoring SB 394, the Open Government Act of 2005.

Sen. Cornyn told the assembled newspaper people from across the United States that gathering open records is a major problem for the public and their elected officials as well.

It turns out that many of the bureaucrats involved drag their feet, so to speak, and take inordinate amounts of time to produce requested records. Time seems to stand still when it comes to offering up documents that are the public’s domain. Days turn to weeks, weeks to months and months to years in many cases.

The time drag is effectively keeping the records closed to the public. Many times the requester simply gives up due to the fact that the needed information is no longer timely or even forgotten about.

SB 394 would establish a more stringent time enforcement, demanding records to be found and provided within days.

Sen. Cornyn asked the NNA crowd to help him secure more sponsors for the legislation. The Republican senator has a Democratic co-sponsor, Vermont’s Sen. Patrick Leahy. This is no small feat in Washington, D.C., these highly partisan days.

Several other speakers brought the crowd up to date on other happenings in the nation’s Capital, Congressmen Lee Hamilton and John McHugh and Senators Mitch McConnell and Joseph Biden.

U.S. Postal Service employee Marion Narcisse of Denham Springs, La., won this year’s Ben Franklin Award and NNA’s postal expert Max Heath and Postmaster General John E. Potter were on hand for the presentation.

Those in attendance then spread out over “The Hill.” Lynn and Linda Brisendine from the Brownfield News and TPA’s executive director Micheal Hodges visited the offices of Congressman Randy Neugebauer and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Larry and Susie Jackson from the Wharton Journal-Spectator and Buddy and Judy Johnson from The Hometown Press in Winnie stopped by their congressman’s office and visited with Ron Paul.

Alvin and Linda Holley dropped in on their congressman Rep. Kevin Brady. They were surprised when Brady presented them with certificates celebrating the recent Centennial observance of the Polk County Enterprise.

Rick and Jill Craig accompanied Jerry and Vana Tidwell of the Hood County News on a visit to their U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards. Tidwell said Edwards seemed in favor of the legislative issues facing the newspaper industry.

Our TPA President Wanda Garner  Cash of The Baytown Sun visited several offices on “The Hill.”

Texans John and Frances Buzzetta from Van Zandt Newspapers also attended the GAC.

The conference also discussed legislation dealing with postal reform. We made a special point of reminding legislators that the postal retirement funds have been maxed out and more than $81 billion has been overpaid into the pension plan. We asked them to allow postal officials to use this money for budget concerns, which would alleviate a need for postal hikes in the immediate future.

Other legislation discussed included fax transmissions, the ability of associations to provide group health insurance coverage, estate taxes and many regional issues.

Friday afternoon attendees again split into groups and visited the Greek Embassy or the New Zealand Embassy and the Brookings Institute, a think tank where national policy issues were discussed.

Linda and I made our way to New Zealand. And it proved to be a great choice. The ambassador told us about his nation in some detail while using humor and a continuous admonishing that his nation and our country are steadfast allies.

He then hosted a mixer featuring some great New Zealand wine and delicious hors d’oeuvres with fare from the island nation. I looked out our bus window as we pulled away from the embassy to see the ambassador waving good-bye. It was the best embassy visit I have made during a GAC meeting.

In fact, it may have been one of the best Governmental Affairs Conferences I have attended. The speakers, the visits with the elected officials and their staffs, the interchange of ideas with newspaper people from across this great country, and the fellowship of Texans made it a productive, informative and entertaining few days in the beautiful and historical setting of our nation’s Capital City.

If you are not a member of NNA, you should consider becoming one. The NNA is working everyday in your interest on your Capital Hill and is an ongoing voice of reason in dealing with the U.S. Postal Service.