Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre/Mifflin) Monday urged Gov. Tom Wolf to sign House Bill 2463, legislation that passed the General Assembly unanimously to require state agencies to respond to Right-to-Know Law requests during a disaster declaration.
Last week, despite the unanimous passage by the General Assembly, Wolf said he would veto the legislation.
In response, Benninghoff made the following statement:
“Gov. Wolf should do the right thing and sign House Bill 2463, a critical transparency bill that won unanimous support in both chambers of the General Assembly.
“Throughout this pandemic, government overreach, secrecy and lack of transparency has been perpetuated at an alarming rate. There is no justification for denying access to public records.
“Over the years, the General Assembly has successfully updated our transparency laws to make them some of the best in the country and, right now, Pennsylvanians need transparency to be restored to their government. This administration needs to be held accountable to the people of Pennsylvania.”
This bill was prime sponsored by Rep. Seth Grove (R-Dover), who held a virtual press conference about the legislation this morning.
Following the press conference, Grove released a statement, which said in part:
“Favoring transparency is more than words. It means providing the public with a view of not just what is happening, but why. That is what makes the governor’s threat to veto this emergency RTK legislation so concerning,” Grove said. “State government has successfully demonstrated its portability during the COVID-19 pandemic as many aspects of it smoothly transitioned when asked to work from a remote location. With today’s technology, RTK requests can be asked and answered quickly and flawlessly without exposing confidential information.”
An archive of the press conference can be found here.
