A Louisiana Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday that would essentially rewrite the Louisiana Public Records Act, exempting nearly all records at all levels of government from public scrutiny.
The Senate and the Political Affairs Committee moved forward. Senate Bill 482This would create the broadest public records exemption ever for state government. It was approved on a party-line vote of 6-2. Sen. Heather Cloud's (R-Turkey Creek) bill has support from Republicans, including Gov. Jeff Landry, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and Attorney General Liz Murrill.
Some Republicans on the committee requested access to public records during the hearing, but ultimately voted in favor of the cloud bill.
“I think the public has a right to know some of those things, and we have to be very careful about being too broad in granting these kinds of exceptions,” said Republican Gregory of Norco. Senator Miller said.
Public records laws protect the public's right to know what the government is doing. These are part of the Sunshine Act, which states and the federal government have enacted to ensure transparency. Journalists use public records to investigate government efficiency and wrongdoing. Any citizen interested in how the government is run can request public records.
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Cloud said his bill simply incorporates into law an existing exemption for court-created records related to the deliberative process, citing the case. Kyle v. Louisiana Public Service Commission.
One of the state's leading experts on public records and the First Amendment said that's not the case.
“If the privileges contained in SB 482 were Louisiana law, we wouldn't have access to public records for all this time,” attorney Scott Sternberg said in an interview. “I have no knowledge of existing privileges like SB 482, and neither do any other journalists or lawyers I know.”
of louisiana illuminator Cloud filed more than 300 public records requests in 2023, none of which were denied based on the court precedents Cloud cited.
Cloud's bill was opposed by a wide range of individuals and groups with different ideological leanings.
Stephen Procopio, president of the Louisiana Public Affairs Research Council, a good government organization, said in his testimony that the deliberative process privileges created by the bill include allowing government records to be made public after a set period of time. He expressed concern that there were no guardrails in place. Temporal. Cloud's bill would permanently keep records from public view.
“There are far-reaching implications,” Procopio told committee members. “This is not just a decision by the governor's office. This is every state agency, every local agency, sewer department, water department, everything that exists.
“This is a serious problem,” Procopio added.
Michael Lunsford, executive director of the conservative watchdog group Citizens for a New Louisiana, also expressed concern about the bill's overly broad language in a statement to Congress. Illuminator. He said he expects the bill to continue to be fine-tuned as it progresses.
Cloud promised the committee he would not move forward with the bill unless a compromise was reached.
“Sen. Cloud has expressed that he wants to ensure that the public has access to the records to which they are entitled,” Sternberg said in an interview. “Based on her testimony, I think some of the information she was given was incomplete about how residents of this state can continue to request very basic records from the Library Board. I look forward to speaking with her,” police jurors, and elected officials across the state, as written in the Constitution. ”
Several other states have deliberation record exceptions, but most are much narrower in scope than those proposed in the cloud bill and often apply only to the executive branch.
former Republican governor Bobby Jindal There were some of the broadest exemptions, but they were rescinded after he left office.
Landry has touted transparency as a core value of his administration.
During a special legislative session on crime earlier this year, the governor said: Sponsored a bill that would give the public more access to juvenile court records. These have historically been kept from public view to protect minors.
“The lack of transparency in our criminal justice system is unacceptable,” Landry said in his opening remarks.
Despite these transparency efforts, Landry and his Republican allies have moved to shield records related to public interest from public view. The cloud bill would exempt almost everything.
Congress has already passed legislation to protect state records. related to punishment And he is pushing a bill that would make records related to economic development projects, public officials' schedules and the governor's mansion off-limits.
Additional legislation introduced in Congress would restrict access to public records only to Louisiana residents.
Landry said the cloud bill actually promotes transparency.
“The Public Records Act is intended to provide taxpayers with transparency when the government spends their precious tax dollars,” Landry said in a statement. illuminator. “While I was attorney general, I had to hire two attorneys full time to respond to sometimes unreasonable requests from people who had no connection to the state.
“We have always valued transparency when it comes to fiscal etiquette,” Landry added.
Mr. Cloud's bill still must be approved by the House and Senate.
