Idaho House Passes Bill Eroding Government Transparency

Oh boy, is the House rolling out some doozies this session! The latest bill to enter the fray of very bad ideas is House Bill 601. Representative Blanksma’s (R-Hammett) bill exempts certain public records from being obtained by the public through a public records request; restricting public access to information related to government activity.

Current information obtainable by public records request that will be off limits should the bill pass:

  • State email accounts and other public communication lines used by or among legislators.

  • The identity of those with whom lawmakers communicate when crafting legislation (being unable to tell with whom or for whom legislation is being made for).

  • Legislative research requests by legislators to the Legislative Services Office.

Why does this matter to sportsman (other than a denominating interest of most Americans to value government transparency)? Idaho’s Sunshine Laws, which ensure access to government records for citizens, were put in place to shine a light on taxpayer funded activity. IWF has used the Sunshine Law to look through official state emails to stop legislative attempts to force auction tags on sportsmen. IWF used them to prove the Wilks brothers were behind the new trespass law.

They’re a valuable tool for the public and eroding them has some 1st Amendment implications. Ironically, Rep. Blanksma claimed the need to limit the public’s ability to records is because they’ve seen a significant rise in requests, burdening the Legislative Services Office (LSO). The problem is record requests have actually gone down (90 in 2015, 21 in 2020) and it’s taken LSO 14 hours to comply… So what’s the real reason they want less sunshine on their activity?

Use the form below to send a message to you senator and ask to preserve transparency.

Voting yes: Reps. Chris Abernathy, James Addis, Paul Amador, Neil Anderson, Robert Anderst, Kevin Andrus, Randy Armstrong, Vito Barbieri, Megan Blanksma, Judy Boyle, Lance Clow, Gary Collins, Gayann DeMordaunt, Barbara Ehardt, Rod Furniss, Terry Gestrin, Marc Gibbs, Bill Goesling, Steven Harris, James Holtzclaw, Wendy Horman, Clark Kuaffman, Ryan Kerby, Mike Kingsley, Megan Kiska, Laurie Lickley, Gary Marshall, Ron Mendive, Jason Monks, Mike Moyle, Joe Palmer, Britt Raybould, Jerald Raymond, Tim Remington, Doug Ricks, Paul Shepherd, Scott Syme, John Vander Woude, Jarom Wagoner, Fred Wood, Rick Youngblood, and Speaker Scott Bedke.

Voting no: Reps. Steve Berch, Greg Chaney, Sue Chew, Brent Crane, Muffy Davis, Sage Dixon, Jake Ellis, John Gannon, Priscilla Giddings, Brooke Green, Linda Wright Hartgen, Rob Mason, John McCrostie, Dorothy Moon, Lauren Necochea, Tammy Nichols, Ilana Rubel, Heather Scott, Elaine Smith, Thyra Stevenson, Sally Toone, Melissa Wintrow, Tony Wisniewski, Julianne Young, Christy Zito, and Melissa Wintrow.

Brian Brooks