Bills Introduced to Create Legislative Open Records Act

Liz Gullett

Mar 18, 2016

This week, a bipartisan coalition of House members introduced a package of legislation creating the Legislative Open Records Act (LORA). The legislation would subject the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, and the legislature to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). “The package was introduced to coincide with Sunshine Week, which promotes public access to government information. The expansion would mirror FOIA and allow citizen’s access to records that had previously been un-accessible. However, like the Governor has with communications related to the Flint water crisis, legislators are always free to publicly release information,” explained Tim Ward of MLC. “These bills represent a cultural change for Michigan’s legislative and executive branches.”

The package provides for several exemptions including communication with constituents, personnel records and records related to ongoing internal or legislative investigations or litigation. The bill package has been referred to the House Oversight and Ethics Committee, chaired by Representative Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan) who is also a main bill sponsor on the package.

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