American Oversight Condemns North Carolina Lawmakers’ Secret Attempt to Eviscerate Public Records Laws
A draft of the state budget reportedly includes last-minute language that would allow state legislators to determine what documents are public — and what can be destroyed.
Nonprofit watchdog American Oversight condemns the reported effort by North Carolina state lawmakers to shield their records by giving legislators the power to determine which records belong to the public.
The provision, buried within hundreds of pages of the state’s draft budget, would allow lawmakers the discretion to destroy documents — including those currently considered public records — and would reportedly take effect immediately upon the bill becoming law.
Statement from Heather Sawyer, Executive Director of American Oversight:
“This measure, as reported, would be a devastating blow to North Carolinians’ right to know what their elected officials are doing in their name. Giving individual lawmakers the power to decide what they can hide or destroy is contrary to the letter and spirit of the state’s public records law, and only benefits lawmakers who wish to conceal their actions. American Oversight calls on members of the General Assembly to reject this nakedly anti-democratic measure.”
According to news publications that obtained leaked copies of the budget draft, the provision says that lawmakers, who are considered custodians of their own records, “shall determine, in the custodian’s discretion, whether a record is a public record and whether to turn over to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, or retain, destroy, sell, loan, or otherwise dispose of, such records.”
The proposed measure is the latest effort by officials in states across the country to roll back access to government records and keep their actions hidden from the public. Last week, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law restrictions on the release of records related to her travel and security, having initially pushed for more exemptions to the state’s public records law that were deemed too extreme by state lawmakers. In the spring, a similar law was enacted in Florida to shield Gov. Ron DeSantis’ travel records.
Earlier this year, the Arizona Legislature implemented rule changes that instructed lawmakers to delete communications, thus allowing them to avoid releasing documents under the state’s public records law. Similar efforts in Washington state were reported in late February.