House Fiddles. Open Records Stall
Feb 7th, 2008 by JamieB
Even as the House engaged in partisan bickering of the kind that makes you wonder whether they will get anything done this session, the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition called for passage of Senate Bill 1 without either amendment or further ado.
And that, Deputy House Speaker Josh Shapiro (D-Montgomery) told the news service, Capitolwire, in an email message was exactly what the Democrats planned to do — “pass SB1, a strong open records bill, without amendment today.”
But a united Republican front managed to block House consideration of the bill until Feb. 12th.
Witnesses described the four hours of fruitless and often ugly debate as partisan bickering at its worst. Even though they found it hard to watch, however, they did not argue that such “conversations” would be better off behind closed doors. It’s clear we need to see the process, warts and all.
While many House members are openly expressing their frustrations with the process and their desire to see this bill enacted before the April primary, there are only two session days scheduled next week, and then the budget hearings break until March 10th.
Meanwhile, at a press conference yesterday morning on the Capitol Rotunda steps, House Minority Leader Sam Smith (R-Punxsutawney) claimed the House Democrats were caucusing on a secret Open Records law amendment that they refused to share with the their Republican colleagues. The Democrats mobilized quickly to deny the charge. The irony should not be lost that the Republicans then went into the legislature and voted as a single body to put off — once again — a vote on the Open Records bill.
On a more positive note, the PaFOIC urged the House “to pass with no further amendments Senate Bill 1, legislation that would greatly expand the public’s right to access government documents.”
“This is a good bill for the citizens of Pennsylvania,” said Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the PaFOIC. “While there is no such thing as a perfect bill, and there are still some provisions that will need revisiting in the future, we feel SB1 overall is an excellent compromise, and represents the long-sought reform that Pennsylvanians have been looking for. It is way past time to get this law on the books.”