Fourteen organizations, including Reinvent Albany, sent a letter to legislative leaders asking that the New York State Senate and Assembly adopt rules reform to ensure a more open and democratic legislative process.
One of the proposals in the letter was for the Senate to align its FOIL rules with the Assembly’s. Currently, the Assembly’s rules go beyond what is mandated by the Freedom of Information to have same presumption of access as state agencies, whereas the Senate’s rules only meet the bare minimum requirements.
Last month, Reinvent Albany published a report on Legislative FOIL and the two houses’ respective approaches, including recommendations on options for reform. The report is available below, and a PDF of the report can also be found here.