Illinois leading legislators draft weaker alternative to state FOIA law
May 21, 2009
[edit] Illinois leading legislators draft weaker alternative to state FOIA law
May 21, 2009: "Illinois' leading lawmakers privately circulated their own proposal for a new public records law Wednesday that would essentially gut months of work by interest groups attempting to strengthen the state's notoriously weak public access to government records.
While supporters of a stronger open records measure scrambled to recover, a House committee went ahead with two other ethics proposals. One would make public some internal probes of state employee misconduct, and the other would fire hundreds of patronage employees hired by two previous disgraced governors.
The newest draft version of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act was drawn by staff of House and Senate leadership and circulated Wednesday to certain lobby groups, with less than two weeks to act before lawmakers go home. Although House Speaker Michael Madigan's staff circulated the redrawn bill, aides to his daughter, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, said she was taken by surprise."
