Will Sunshine die of inaction in the SC Senate?

There are only two more weeks left before our state Legislature goes home for the year!

If the South Carolina Senate doesn’t pass H3235, the Freedom of Information Act Sunshine bill, by then we’ll have to start all over again in January from square one!

They will continue to legally be able to ignore your requests for information!

We can’t let this stonewalling go on another year… or two!

If we don’t turn up the heat…  pour on the pressure…  and get this bill moving, we can count on never have access to critical government records.

Senator Larry Martin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, assigned this bill to a subcommittee on May 4th.

Nothing has happened since then!

Remember, this bill came out of the House with literally minutes to spare before the cross over deadline.

We can’t let it wait to the last minute in the Senate.  It is too dangerous!

Senator Chip Campsen is the chairman of the subcommittee where this bill currently sits.

He’s been busy fixing the ballot access problems, but we cannot delay any longer!

Please contact Chip right away and ask him to report this bill out of his subcommittee IMMEDIATELY!

There is literally no time to waste!

The members of the subcommittee are

Chip Campsen (chair); (803) 212-6016; chipcampsen@scsenate.gov

Luke Rankin; (803) 212-6132; luke@rankinandrankin.com

Creighton Coleman; (803) 212-6180; creightoncoleman@scsenate.gov

Tom Davis; (803) 212-6008; tomdavis@scsenate.gov

Floyd Nicholson; (803) 212-6040; floydnicholson@scsenate.gov

Contact them ALL immediately and help them understand the urgent nature of getting this bill on the floor of the Senate.

Tell them to move it out of their committee NOW!

Not only does it need to be reported out immediately, it needs to be reported out WITH NO AMENDMENTS.

Remember, there were members in the House who did everything they could to delay and kill this bill.  We don’t want to give them a second chance at killing it.  If the Senate amends this bill, then it must go back to the House for approval.

We don’t want that!

So, remember to tell the committee members two things:

1. Pass the bill immediately.  There is literally no time to waste.
2. Pass it with no amendments, as is!  We don’t want the House to have a second chance to kill the bill.

I have been primarily interest in this bill because it will, if passed, remove the legislature’s exemption from the Freedom of Information Act.

But, there are others whose interest goes beyond the legislative exemption.

There was testimony in the House committee hearings on this bill of people who were charged exorbitant copy fees by local governments.  There was additional testimony from those who were just stonewalled and delayed so that by the time they got the requested information, it was no longer useful.

This bill will mitigate all these problems by limiting the copy fee charged by the government agency to the market rate and by setting limits on the amount of time the agency takes to comply with a request for information.

These changes to the Freedom of Information Act are critical to our ability to hold government accountable to the people.

Without it, you and I are blind!