Katherine Revello (krevellowrites.bsky.social)

My latest investigation takes a look at the pending cases seeking to rewrite CT's FOIA law to allow agencies to charge hourly fees for time spent searching for records - and how some could be priced out of requests should the effort succeed. insideinvestigator.org/priced-out-foi…

The Office of Policy and Management is now the THIRD agency that has been told it cannot charge FOIA requesters for time its employees spend reviewing responsive records. insideinvestigator.org/foic-finds-opm…

"Threatening" and "harassing" are not defined in the statute. But Sen. Mae Flexer indicated definitions from other areas of statute could be incorporated as the bill moves forward. Also advancing: several bills to exempt records produced from public universities.

A bill to expand CT's vexatious requester statute to include "threatening" or "harassing" behavior even if it occurs OUTSIDE a FOIA request has advanced out of committee. insideinvestigator.org/vexatious-requ…

If you're interested in obtaining public information, there are some things you should know before you file a records request. Check out some of my top tips for understanding what's required under the law and what's not. #sunshineweek #sunshineweek2026

Check out a special Sunshine Week edition of Inside Update! I've got some tips that can help you get started filing FOIA requests.

Today kicks off Sunshine Week, a week dedicated to promoting open government and public records laws. CT filers: check out our new Transparency Resources page. It houses our FOI library, (newly updated) FOI directory, and links to my transparency work! insideinvestigator.org/transparencyre…

Connecticut should be vary wary of responding to current political crises by permanently putting public information outside the public's reach.

Take public information away, and you risk those stories not being discovered. Without public information, we have to rely on public officials who rarely want to talk about questionable things they're doing or whistleblowers who often are scared to talk.

As a result, oversight from journalists and the public is made increasingly difficult, if not impossible. Legislators are responding to many of these issues because of reporting from journalists who rely on public information to serve as government watchdogs.

At the federal level, we've seen what happens when you gut access to public records. The Trump administration has pulled down public datasets, gutted FOIA reading rooms, and fired employees who respond to records requests.

Sunshine Week starts in just a few days, but here in CT, legislators are trying to exempt more and more categories of records from Freedom of Information Act disclosure. Here's a rundown of bills that were introduced/will receive legislative action this week:

Stopping bad government actors from abusing sensitive information is a good thing! But it can't automatically override the public's interest in transparency. These exemptions, once passed, will not be repealed. Permanently putting information beyond public oversight is serious.

So even for the bills that have appeared before - and have not passed because of concern about the impact on public oversight - there's a greater sense of exigency for some politicians to get these passed.

What's frustrating about a lot of these bills is they're responding to attempts by the federal government to access state data as part of immigration enforcement activities and other policies.

On the more positive side, another bill would require public agency employees to complete training on FOI within 6 months of being hired: cga.ct.gov/2026/TOB/H/PDF…

Another bill would expand the state's vexatious requester law to include "harassing or threatening conduct" even if it's unrelated to an FOI request: cga.ct.gov/2026/TOB/S/PDF…

That exemption applies even in the case of "potential" inspections or investigations. The office's executive director would have discretion to overrule that and release records: cga.ct.gov/2026/TOB/S/PDF…

That's just the bills introduced today. There are also several FOI bills getting a public hearing on Friday. There's a bill that creates what's essentially DOGE for CT. A provision of that bill exempts all records relating to investigations or inspections from FOI.

Another bill makes property records related to the unclaimed property program exempt from FOIA: cga.ct.gov/2026/TOB/S/PDF…

There's also another address exemption bill that covers a list of state and municipal employees and appointees and all other public agency employees: cga.ct.gov/2026/TOB/S/PDF…