A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
In most states, freedom of information laws give people access to records from their legislature and governor's office. Not in Michigan, though. A few Democrats and Republicans there are working together to change that. Colin Jackson from the Michigan Public Radio Network reports.
COLIN JACKSON, BYLINE: Like a lot of states, Michigan has a Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA law, that lets residents look at different types of government records. Detroit community organizer Taura Brown says she's used FOIA to amass four-inch binders-worth of records. She says it's great for when she attends meetings for the state's housing agency.
TAURA BROWN: Sometimes, they'll mention things, and I might not understand them, or I want to take a look at it further, and I'll send a FOIA request for it.
JACKSON: Other times, Brown, who says people call her a FOIA queen, uses it to discover things, like how dozens of Detroit police officers were working without licenses.
BROWN: I forwarded out to, like, every news organization that I could think of and every, like, police protesting agency that I could think of.
JACKSON: But Brown or others can't use FOIA to access records from state lawmakers or the governor. Past legislatures and governors applied the open records law to state agencies and local governments, but not themselves.
QUENTIN TURNER: It's very difficult to get that information from those branches of government.
JACKSON: Quentin Turner directs the government accountability group Common Cause Michigan. He says stronger open records policies would let Michiganders better know what's going on.
TURNER: We can see kind of behind the veil of the decision-making process, like, what's influencing the decisions being made by our legislature and by our executive branch. And if we know that there's impropriety in those decisions, we can then, you know, hold them accountable.
JACKSON: The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan said a year ago that only one other state exempts both the legislature and governor's office from open records laws, but bills to change that have repeatedly died in the legislature. Turner explains why.
TURNER: There's not a lot of, I think, strong desire or incentive to have the scrutiny of your work be increased.
JACKSON: Bills to expand FOIA tend to fall through the cracks. They passed the House a couple of times and failed in the Senate. Last year, they finally passed the Senate for the first time but died in the House. Still, this year, one of the sponsors, Republican state Senator Ed McBroom, is optimistic.
ED MCBROOM: Despite all of the media negativity that I've heard coming from certain members, like, they're never going to do it, I think we're - I think it's finally going to happen.
JACKSON: And the bills passed the Senate again in January. But Republican House Speaker Matt Hall, who has backed similar bills in the past, says they won't pass the House this time, and he warns that some of the apparent support is just for show.
MATT HALL: For 10 years, these guys have come up with sales pitch to you and the media that they're going to do this, and you guys have bought it for 10 years, OK, so I would just encourage you guys. Don't get your hopes up too much, OK? They're all politicians.
JACKSON: And Hall says he'd rather focus on other things, like budget transparency and keeping lawmakers from becoming lobbyists immediately after leaving office. As for Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, she voluntarily releases her financial records and believes in transparency, according to a statement from her office, but it didn't commit to the FOIA expansion.
For NPR News, I'm Colin Jackson. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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