New York State Assembly – National Freedom of Information Coalition

Changes in New York Assembly aim for more transparency

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The New York State Assembly has passed a reform package to make its daily operations more open and fair, and to provide more transparency, giving the public more ways to see how the lawmaking body operates.

The package comes almost one year after the Democratic majority established a workgroup to recommend how to improve the legislative process, its operations and public participation. That workgroup issued a report with 42 recommendations late last week and the Assembly voted on Monday to adopt those recommendations that required rules changes.

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Vetoing FOIL bills, NY Gov. Cuomo points finger at legislature, issues executive order

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In response to the conviction of former New York Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos on multiple federal corruption charges, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared on Friday that the state legislature "must stop standing in the way of needed reforms."

Only a few hours later he vetoed two bills designed to speed and reform Freedom of Information Law response and require the state to pay court costs incurred by FOIL users whose requests a judge finds have been improperly denied.

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