bill-to-bolster-public-By Sean Collins Walsh
Posted May 17, 2019 at 10:03 PM
Updated May 18, 2019 at 3:35 PM
In a major victory for governm ent transparency advocates, the Legislature has given final
approval to a bill that would undo parts of two 2015 Texas Suprem e Court decisions that
critics say gutted the state’s freedom of inform ation law .
The House’s vote Friday night in favor of Senate Bill 943 was the capstone of a multisession
effort by Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, to restore the strength of the Texas Public Inform ation
Act after the court opened loopholes allow ing state agencies and local governm ents to keep
secret basic inform ation and docum ents about how they spend taxpayer money on outside
contractors and quasi-governm ental entities.
“The Legislature is finally in a position to restore the public’s right to know ,” Watson said in a
statem ent Friday night. “If Texans are to hold their public officials accountable, access to public
inform ation is essential.”
The Senate previously approved the bill 29-1, and the bill will now go to Gov. Greg Abbott’s
desk.
Last session, Watson’s first attem pt at addressing the two court rulings — Boeing vs. Paxton
and Greater Houston Partnership vs. Paxton — passed the Senate but foundered in the House,
w here then-Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, did not bring it up for a hearing in the Government
T ransparency and Operation Committee, which he chaired. Elkins lost re-election in 2018.
“SB 943 restores transparency ... by closing a loophole so big an airline can fly through it,” Rep.
Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, who carried the bill in the House, said on the floor Friday.
It passed on a voice vote.
Bill to bolster Public Inform ation Act gets House
approval
Page 1 of 2Bill to bolster Public Information Act gets House approval - News - Austin American-Stat...
7/3/2019https://www.statesman.com/news/20190517/bill-to-bolster-public-information-act-gets-hous...
The court rulings expanded exceptions to the Public Inform ation Act that allow governm ents
to withhold records on contracting if the vendors claim the docum ents would reveal trade
secrets or proprietary inform ation, and on their dealings with quasi-governm ental entities like
cham bers of commerce, that receive taxpayer money.
The rulings led to a broad application of the exceptions. The city of McAllen, for instance,
refused to disclose how much it paid singer Enrique Iglesias to perform at a parade.
Watson and Capriglione worked before and during the session to craft the bill in a way that
would minimize opposition from business interests that feared the new law would force them
to reveal inform ation that could be useful to their com petitors.
Instead of requiring that all records that were publicly accessible before 2015 be available going
forw ard, like the 2017 version of the legislation attem pted to do, the new bill spells out
inform ation that cannot be kept secret, such as the term s of a contract, including price,
duration and perform ance evaluation methods.
Page 2 of 2Bill to bolster Public Information Act gets House approval - News - Austin American-Stat...
7/3/2019https://www.statesman.com/news/20190517/bill-to-bolster-public-information-act-gets-hous...