Take Action Now!

November 11, 2014

Please immediately contact your local legislators and ask them to support overriding the Governor's veto of House Bill 3796! 

House Bill (HB) 3796 contains reasonable reforms to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and passed the Illinois General Assembly last spring by large bipartisan majorities.  The bill included language proposed by ILA to increase transparency by encouraging, but not mandating, Internet posting of documents subject to FOIA requests.  If the information requested was already publicly available on the Internet, a government body can simply refer the requester to the document rather than having to duplicate the request. 

The bill also provided small measured relief from voluminous FOIA requests.  Legislators wanted to bring clarity to what constitutes a voluminous request, and provide additional flexibility to governmental bodies.  The legislation still ensuring that all documents subject to FOIA will be made available as fast as reasonable.  The Governor vetoed the bill arguing that it could lead to less transparency, but in the view of ILA, the legislation as passed struck the right balance and should be enacted. 

Please reach out to your local State Representative and State Senator and ask them to Vote Yes on the motion to override the Governor's veto of House Bill 3796.

The 2014 Fall Veto Session will be held 19-20 November and 2-4 December 2014.

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