Perdue Vetoes Confidentiality Bill
September 11, 2009
The News and Observer reports that Gov. Perdue used her first veto to kill HB 104, which would have made certain documents used in drafting legislation confidential. § 120-131.1(a2) of the bill reads:
A request, and any supporting documents, made to an agency employee by a legislative employee pursuant to G.S. 120-130 or G.S. 120-131 is confidential. An agency employee who receives such a request or who learns of such a request made to another agency employee shall reveal the existence of the request only to other agency employees of the agency to the extent that it is necessary to respond to the request and to the agency employee's supervisor. All documents prepared by the agency employee in response to the request of a legislative employee under this subsection are also confidential and shall be kept confidential in the same manner as the original request. The request, any supporting documents to the request, and any documents prepared by the agency employee in response to a request under this subsection are not "public records" as defined by G.S. 132-1.
State legislature is tenatively scheduled to reconvene September 18th to decide whether to attempt to overturn the veto.
"They're going to consider the governor's concerns about this bill and decide how to respond," said Bill Holmes, a spokesman for Speaker of the House, Joe Hackney.