Enhancing transparency of the legislative process.

              INTERIM STUDY REPORT
Government Modernization Committee
Rep. Jason Murphey, Chairman
Oklahoma House of Representatives
Interim Study 11-020, Rep. Jason Murphey
November 10, 2011
Enhancing transparency of the legislative process
Joey Senat
Associate Professor, Oklahoma State University
∙ Oklahoma is one of three states that has exempted itself from the Open Records Act.
∙ Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas and Texas include their state legislatures in the open records law.
∙ Minnesota has a separate statute to cover the legislature. This is an option for Oklahoma where
those things that are truly of a confidential nature would be exempted.
∙ Don’t exempt communications between legislators or between legislators and lobbyists.
∙ The reasoning of elected officials is just as important as their final vote.
Peter Rudy
Oklahoma Watchdog
∙ Changes to the conference committee process implemented last session have been a big step to
increasing transparency.
∙ Room 432a is the least transparent room in the House.
∙ Budget decisions are made by a few people behind closed doors.
∙ Critical piece of transparency is to give ample notice of meetings.
∙ Every bill should be heard and voted on in committee.
∙ Change the discharge petition requirement to 51 signatures so bills that have wide support can
bypass the committee process.
∙ Another issue is the Governor’s veto. At least four states have “veto sessions” after Sine Die to
take care of any vetoes by the Governor.
Senator Karen Peterson
State of Delaware
∙ Passed a bill last year to include the legislature in her state’s open records law and they have not
experienced any catastrophic results.
∙ All budget deliberations are open to the public.
∙ The state’s budget was ready two weeks ahead of schedule this year.
∙ Everyone can see what is in the budget before it’s voted on.
∙ Excluded party caucus meetings, emails between legislators and staff, ethics committee
hearings and emails between constituents and legislators.
∙ If a charge is made that there is a violation, the state’s attorney general would be the enforcer.
We have to rely on the press to bring this to light to force a release of documents.
∙ The cost to the state has been $64,000 to handle the open records requests.
Attached Documents:
Meeting Notice
Peter Rudy prepared comments
http://www.okhouse.gov/Documents/InterimStudies/2011/11-020%20presentation%20a.pdf
Sign in sheet http://www.okhouse.gov/Documents/InterimStudies/2011/11-
020%20signin.pdf