ALEXANDRIA, LA (KALB) – Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill stopped in Alexandria on April 24, six days after her first 100 days in office.
“It's been a whirlwind,” she said. “We had three sessions in a row. It's a little hard to grade myself because I'm so busy, but I'm going to fight for the freedom of speech that I had with the people when I ran for office. We've tried to keep our promise to fight for jobs and fight crime. I think we've made a good start in terms of all of this. Yes, it’s still early.”
Regarding open meetings and transparency within government, Murrill said our constitution embraces the idea that people should have access to government activities.
“The debate you are hearing on Capitol Hill is about how we can ensure that government officials and officials are able to do their jobs and make decisions, and provide the necessary, appropriate and protected transparency. “I think it’s about where do we draw the line?’ It’s written into our state constitution,” she said.
Two bills currently under consideration, House Bill 103 and Senate Bill 482, concern open meetings, transparency, and access to public records. Murrill said it has always been important that citizens have access to government operations, and our Constitution protects that.
“The Open Meetings Act is another form of openness and transparency in government, and we at the Attorney General's Office actually enforce the Open Meetings Act and teach government agencies the rules of public records law,” she said. Stated. “I think the bills that are being passed right now are creating some good conversations about what should be commemorated in the statute, and some of the conversations that we've seen in one of the bills about what's called the deliberative process is, what should we commemorate? That's already in the jurisprudence, and I don't know if it's reflected properly in the parliamentary arena, but it's an issue that I've been grappling with for years. ”
Murrill explained that SB 482's definition of deliberative process is consistent with the court's standards and protects discussions of high-level decision-making from scrutiny. She said this safeguard would allow public servants to have candid conversations with employees to make informed decisions, promoting transparency while ensuring the integrity of the decision-making process. thinking about.
“What the deliberative process protects is that at the point when public officials like governors and agency heads need to be able to interact with employees, they can have frank conversations about the good and bad of decisions. ” You have to be unafraid that there's someone over your shoulder listening to you, and that changes the nature of the conversation. ”
Murrill is spearheading a lawsuit with 15 other states suing the Biden administration over liquefied natural gas exports. Murrill said Louisiana is making significant investments in infrastructure surrounding LNG exports.
“We export to countries that have free trade agreements with us. But we also export to countries that don't have free trade agreements with us, such as Europe. The need for that energy will never go away. So countries that we would otherwise supply energy to have their energy needs met elsewhere, and their options are very narrow.”
When asked what will happen in the next 100 days and beyond, Murrill said:
“My values and goals are the same. On the crime side, I think we're going to continue to work with our important friends and find ways to keep our people safe. On the freedom side, we're going to continue to work together with our important friends and find ways to keep our people safe. will continue to fight for the freedoms we have.”
Read the full interview with AG Murrill here:
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