Legislative Branch

Earlier this year, to coincide with an open-government initiative known as Sunshine Week, reporters from the Associated Press sent requests for the records of legislative leaders in all 50 states. They asked for lawmakers’ daily schedules as well as emails from their government accounts. In most cases, AP reported in March, its reporters came away empty-handed, as they ran into more denials for the requests than approvals.

This right to deny access to certain records is a long-standing, widespread prerogative of legislators in states across the country — the result of a mix of constitutional language and principles, statutory language, and legal opinions.

On Wednesday, March 9^th, state regulators from across the country testified in front of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works about the difficulties they face as co-regulators with federal agencies.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management held a hearing yesterday on the Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act (UMITA), proposed legislation aimed at strengthening the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA) and addressing the challenges state and local governments face as they implement congressional and agency mandates.

President Bill Clinton signed the UMRA into law in an effort to improve regulatory practices and to bring more...

Nebraska lawmakers voted in early 2016 to maintain the Unicameral Legislature’s secret-ballot method of selecting committee chairs and other leaders. Every two years, each of the state’s 49 senators casts votes for these leadership positions (including the top position of speaker). Under this system, the jockeying among members to become speaker or chair of one of the 14 standing committees can go on for months.

Most legislatures do not have firm rules in place, and nearly all committee witnesses still make their statements in person, according to a recent CSG Midwest survey of the region’s legislative service agencies. However, most states in the Midwest do provide remote testimony as an option in certain situations — especially those in which an invited committee guest faces travel-related obstacles.

Ohio has joined the list of Midwestern states that require visitors to walk through a metal detector before entering the capitol building. The state’s new security rules, which took effect this fall, also ban backpacks. Gov. John Kasich had called for the use of metal detectors soon after taking office in 2011, cleveland.com reports.