CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A bill narrowly approved in the House of Delegates would allow the Legislature to write its own rules for disclosing public records.
HB 3412 authorizes the legislature to develop its own rules for fulfilling public records requests. Currently, the legislature falls under the state’s Freedom of Information Act laws. FOIA is often used by journalists, researchers, and citizens to obtain access to legislators’ correspondence and provide insight into the decision-making process.
The bill passed on a 58-42 vote with supporters pointing to the burden on staff fulfilling often frivolous FOIA requests and the pre-decisional nature of the legislative branch. Others questioned the need for the bill and if it made the legislature less accountable.
Del. Larry Kump, Berkeley-R, said he had received a tremendous amount of feedback from constituents urging him to reject the measure. Kump shared one of the messages he had received.
“Everyone that runs in a campaign should never include in their campaigning, that they believe in transparency and they will fight for truth and protect West Virginia residents every step of the way. With this new rule, people need to know exactly what their delegate is doing for them, to know if they’re being truly respected or protected,” Kump said.
House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, the bill sponsor, explained last week during discussion in the House Rules Committee, that the intent of the bill was not to hide anything from the public, but to clearly establish what is and is not public record in the legislature. Bill supporters also pointed out the burden placed on staff to fulfill FOIA requests, some of which are frivolous or requested from out-of-state entities.
“We’re doing it because you’ve heard some discussion about the workload that comes in and be able to clarify parameters in the process to access legislative records,” explained Del. Clay Riley, Harrison-R.
“It’s important for the public to know what they’re going to be able to get, how they’re going to be able to get it. So this is an opportunity for the legislature to clarify their rules.”
If the bill is adopted, requests for public records could be made by citing the rule crafted by the House, rather than state code, which supporters insist fulfills the same obligations. Del. Evan Hansen, Monongalia-D, argued that might be the case right now but there is no guarantee that future legislatures will not pass rules restricting access to records.
“There are no guard rails on the rule-making process other than the fact that we vote on it. We could pass a rule that’s similar to what the current statute is. We could pass a rule that’s very different and protects all of our records from public disclosure, and that’s not right. We should play by the same rules as everybody else in government,” said Hansen.
Del. Tristian Leavitt spoke in favor of the bill and pointed out that anyone who believes the House of Delegates is not a transparent body is not paying attention.
“I hate to hear anybody ever say that there’s a lack of accountability here, because, again, we have the greatest accountability. If the voters don’t like what we do, they replace us,” Leavitt said.
“As most of you know, so this is a place that has absolute accountability. Every day, the taxpayers can see what we’re doing here on the floor. They can see what we’re doing in committee. We are as public and transparent as we could possibly be, and so regardless of what this law looks like, and I think this is a good bill, I think this is a very useful change, be it to be able to address the best allocation of our resources, because we all believe in transparency, and that’s why we’re here.”
Others also expressed concerns with the bill as it worked its way through the committee process, including Doug Skaff, interim director of the West Virginia Press Association. He told lawmakers during the discussion in the House Rules Committee he wanted to ensure access to public records.
“We just want to make sure that these laws provide a legal basis and a framework that government records, meetings and all the doings within the public body of this Capitol is available to recognized media outlets in this state,” Skaff said.
“We think we owe it to the people of West Virginia to discuss and spread the information that happens under this dome.”
For the bill to go into effect, the House of Delegates must first establish its own FOIA rule. Without the rule, current state FOIA law would be the default.
The bill next moves to the Senate for consideration.
Saturday, April 12 is the final day of the legislative session.