ND bill would ID lawmakers making public records requests
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota legislative leaders are pushing a measure that would name lawmakers who make written requests for public records.
Currently, lawmakers can make anonymous requests for public records through the Legislative Council, which is the Legislature's research arm.
Republican Senator Tim Flakoll of Fargo is the main sponsor of the bill. He says there have been some cases where unnamed lawmakers have made single requests for thousands of pages of documents at a staggering cost to taxpayers.
Although the proposed legislation is intended to strip the anonymity of lawmakers making such requests, it still provides a huge loophole. Lawmakers can still be unnamed if they make the request for public records by telephone.