A legislative committee in Pennsylvania will consider on Monday a proposal that would expand the state’s open-records law to explicitly include colleges and universities, among other agencies, The Patriot-News reported. The proposal, by the Senate majority leader, Dominic Pileggi, a Republican, would also remind the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency that it is subject to the law.
The nonprofit student-loan agency revealed last week that it had spent more than $400,000 in its court battle with the Harrisburg, Pa., newspaper and two other news-media organizations to keep its travel-expense records secret. Those records, when finally released under court order, documented lavish travel and entertainment expenses that the agency’s employees incurred from 2003 to 2005.
Senator Pileggi is not alone in wanting to strengthen the state’s open-records law, which has been called one of the weakest in the nation. Pennsylvania’s governor, Edward G. Rendell, a Democrat, and two Democratic lawmakers, State Rep. Tim Mahoney and Sen. Jim Ferlo, are also working on or have presented proposals. —Charles Huckabee
