MELLOW COMMENTS ON FINAL PASSAGE OF OPEN RECORDS BILL HARRISBURG, February 12, 2008 – State Senate Democratic Leader Robert J. Mellow today said he was pleased with the Senate’s passage of open records legislation. The bill (Senate Bill 1), which contains several technical and clarification-type amendments tacked on in the House, now goes to the Governor for enactment. “I am proud that this legislation originated in the Senate, and proud of the bipartisan consensus we reached to make government at all levels more open and accessible,” Mellow said. Mellow, who first permitted television broadcasts of senate sessions years ago, said openness is an “integral element of any working Democracy.” He said full and timely access to government information and records would strengthen the public’s ability to fully weigh in on a wide range of proposals and policies. He said the bill presumes that government records – as well as legislative records -- are public records unless one of the limited exceptions applies. The measure also requires government officials to quickly respond to requests, gives citizens strong appeal rights and penalizes agencies that wrongly withhold records. Predicting that Gov. Ed Rendell would sign the bill into law, Mellow said the new open records law would complement Senate institutional rule changes lawmakers approved last year that require the positing of additional records on the Internet, impose waiting periods on when bills and amendments can be voted on, and limit session hours to between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. # # #