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Summary: Under current law, "[a] governmental body on request by an individual member, agency, or committee of the legislature shall provide public information, including confidential information, to the requesting member, agency, or committee for inspection or duplication in accordance with this chapter if the requesting member, agency, or committee states that the public information is requested under this chapter for legislative purposes" (Government Code Section 552.008). The issue arises when the scope of the request is in question as the result of a judicial ruling where "[a] court recently ruled that information deemed privileged attorney-client communications and attorney work product are subject to disclosure to a legislative requestor under public information law". SB 1882 would clarify public information requests for confidential information by requiring a governmental body to produce the information within a reasonable time. If this cannot occur within 10 business days, then the government entity has to provide a date and time in writing that the information will be ready. Furthermore, the entity must provide the information as it is available rather than waiting until all the information requested is available.
Analysis: SB 1882 may make some records more accessible to legislators, however it does not uplift or offend our principles so we are neutral.
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