In a last-minute maneuver, Louisiana legislators approved a bill that would require anyone requesting public records from Governor Jeff Landry’s office be a resident of Louisiana.
Governor Landry is expected to sign House Bill 767, authored by Rep. Julie Emerson (R-Carencro).
Under the bill, which received concurrence from both the House and the Senate after a conference committee hashed out differences between the chambers, the state’s custodian of records will be required to “request proof of a requestor's identity, age, and residency” to ensure that the person seeking public records from Landry’s office lives in Louisiana.
That language was added to the bill in the waning hours of the session and approved despite objections from some lawmakers during floor debate. Rep. Matthew Willard (R-New Orleans) noted during debate that the bill will stifle investigative reporting by the major out-of-market news agencies, such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Rep. Emerson responded that those outlets could still obtain records if they ask a Louisiana-based journalist to access them.
In the upper chamber, Sen. Kirk Talbot (R-River Ridge) waved off similar concerns from his colleagues. He said he doesn’t think the law “would be a big deal” because most national news outlets “have affiliates here.”
The bill also restricts access to some information regarding the travel of most statewide elected officials. Under the proposal, “any record of the office of lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, commissioner of agriculture, or commissioner of insurance pertaining to the schedule of the official” may be kept confidential for up to seven days following a scheduled event if those records contain “security details that if made public may impair the safety of the official.” The bill initially included the governor’s records in that exemption, but the conference committee agreed to the Senate’s amendment removing that language from the proposal.
