passopenrecords.org

These two stories from the Associated Press — the Senate State Government Committee voted to send SB 1 to the full Senate; while the House pushed back its debate on HB 443 for at least a day.

• A state Senate committee unanimously approved a bill today to overhaul the law that sets limits on public access to government records, although some critics say the rewrite does not go far enough in peeling back secrecy.

The bill endorsed by the Senate State Government Committee would make all executive branch records available to the public at the state and local levels, unless they fall into one of 28 exceptions. The current Right-to-Know Law defines specific types of records that are public and presumes all others can remain secret.

The bill also would force government agencies to justify denials when a dispute goes before a judge, instead of forcing the person seeking the record to show why it should be public.

Critics say the bill would not similarly expand access to records of the Legislature, such as the decisions that legislative leaders make to allocate money to various grant programs or other items in the budget.

The Senate bill, sponsored by Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware), could come up for debate in the full chamber the week of Nov. 19. The House is scheduled to debate its own bill later this week.

Pennsylvania is regarded as having one of the nation’s weakest laws providing public access to government records and information.

• The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is pushing back the start of its debate over changes to the state’s open records law until at least Tuesday.

The speaker’s office says the two party caucuses need more time behind closed doors to go over voluminous amendments to the main bill.