Transparency

By Kelley Shannon Executive Director FOI Foundation of Texas The Texas Senate has passed a major transparency bill that would protect the rights of information requestors and help ensure the Texas Public Information Act is carried out consistently statewide. House Bill 3033 by Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, had already won passage in the Texas House. It was sponsored by Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, in the Senate and won approval in that chamber Tuesday. It now returns to the House for a vote on concurrence with Senate amendments. A major provision in the bill was amended in the Texas House by Rep. Terry [...]

By Kelley Shannon FOI Foundation of Texas Legislation that would close a loophole in the Texas Public Information Act used by some police departments to withhold records when a person dies in custody won approval in a Senate committee Friday. House Bill 30 by Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, and sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, was set for a sudden hearing in the Senate Business and Commerce Committee and won passage Friday morning. It next moves to the full Texas Senate. The measure passed the Texas House earlier this month. King said the "heavily negotiated" bill was [...]

By Vianna Davila ProPublica, co-published with The Texas Tribune Originally published May 9, 2023 Texas public records law allows officials to withhold police records if no one was convicted in a case. At least one city has used this rule to deny the release of suicide records. A new bill aims to close this loophole. When Patty Troyan’s son Logan Castello died by suicide in November 2019 in his Central Texas home, she immediately tried to understand what prompted him to take his own life not long after getting married and days before a planned family Thanksgiving gathering. Castello was a [...]

By Matt Grant KXAN Originally published April 13, 2023 Update May 4, 2023: The Texas House of Representatives gave preliminary approval to HB 30 with a vote of 112-31. AUSTIN (KXAN) — Nearly a year after 19 elementary school students and two teachers were murdered in Uvalde — followed by a steady stream of incorrect and incomplete information released to the public — Texas House lawmakers heard testimony on a bill that would end the state’s controversial “dead suspect loophole.” For years, KXAN has investigated this loophole, which allows police to keep information secret in closed criminal cases that don’t go [...]

The Texas House Committee on State Affairs heard testimony Wednesday in support of legislation that would ensure requestors can obtain public information in spreadsheet format, if it's stored that way. House Bill 2493 by Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, is one of several transparency bills the diverse Texas Sunshine Coalition is working to pass this legislative session. A spreadsheet, or searchable-sortable format for large volumes of data, helps citizens better analyze information and keep a watch on government. Individual citizens, community groups, research organizations and journalists all benefit from the availability of searchable-sortable information. Rod Bordelon of the Texas Public Policy Foundation [...]