FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Progress Michigan
March 12, 2019
Contact: Sam Inglot, 616-916-0574, sam@progressmichigan.org
Progress Michigan Applauds Changes Made to LORA
Extending document retention policy to two years puts legislature in line with rest of state
LANSING — Progress Michigan announced support for the bill package opening up the legislature to more transparency through the Legislative Open Records Act after changes were made to increase the document retention policy in the bills to two years. Previous versions of the bill only had a 30-day retention policy.
“We’re glad to see the changes made to preserve legislative records for two years. The 30-day period in the original legislation was just too short and would have deprived citizens of being able to adequately request public documents. We thank the Government Operations Committee for taking our input to heart,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “While these bills are far from perfect and we still have some concerns about the lack of judicial review in LORA and broad exemptions, we think these bills offer an important step forward for more transparency in Michigan. While Progress Michigan supports the passage of these bills we remain steadfast in our pursuit for more transparency and will continue to work toward meaningful changes to FOIA and LORA to provide greater transparency for the people of Michigan.”
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