American Oversight Urges Top North Carolina Lawmakers to Reject Attempt to Eviscerate Public Records Laws
More than 20 government accountability groups signed the letter urging state legislators to reject provisions in the state budget that would significantly expand lawmakers’ exemptions to public records requirements.
On Thursday, American Oversight and more than 20 organizations signed a letter urging top North Carolina legislators to reject efforts to exempt state lawmakers from public records requirements.
The measure is buried in the more than 600 pages of the state’s budget bill. The final version of the budget contains language allowing legislators or former lawmakers to assert legislative privilege “in all instances” — relieving lawmakers of any requirement to “reveal any document, supporting document, drafting request, or information request made or received by that legislator while a legislator.”
Another provision, which according to news publications was also in an earlier version of the budget that was leaked this week, says that state 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.”
In other words: This measure would grant every lawmaker the power to shield their actions from public view — a devastating blow to government transparency and to North Carolinians’ right to access public records in the custody of elected officials.
Empowering individual lawmakers to determine which records they can hide from public view is contrary to the letter and spirit of the state’s public records laws, which make records and information compiled by governmental entities “the property of the people” — not government officials. This attempt to fundamentally alter North Carolina public records requirements is deeply concerning.
American Oversight, joined by more than 20 other organizations, urged North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore to reject these harmful changes to North Carolina’s public records requirements and affirm the state’s commitment to ensuring public access to information about government activities.
Signatories to the letter at time of publication include the ACLU of North Carolina, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Carolina Migrant Network, the Carolina Peace Center, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Common Cause North Carolina, El Pueblo, Equality NC, Friends of the Earth, Just Futures Law, La Fuerza, Mujerxs Organizando Oportunidades Notables, North Carolina Asian Americans Together, North Carolina Asian Americans Together in Action, the North Carolina Open Government Coalition, Public Wise, Protect Democracy, SEAC Village, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, YWCA Central Carolinas, YWCA Greensboro, YWCA High Point, and YWCA of Winston Salem.
Read the full letter below.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.americanoversight.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Sign-on-Letter-in-Garamond.pdf” title=”Sign-on Letter in Garamond”]