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Legislative Budget and Audit Committee adopts formal confidentiality policy for Legislative Finance Division
Summary
The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee on April 23 adopted a written confidentiality policy for the Legislative Finance Division, formalizing existing practice that requests from legislators and legislative staff for fiscal analyses are treated as confidential.
The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee adopted a written confidentiality policy for the Legislative Finance Division during its April 23 meeting.
Committee members approved the measure by unanimous consent after Director Alexis Painter explained the proposal. Painter told the committee the policy “essentially codifies our existing confidentiality policy” and read the two-sentence statement being adopted: “Members of the legislature and legislative staff may utilize the fiscal analysis and budget review services of the Legislative Finance Division. Request by members of the legislature and legislative staff are confidential.”
Painter told the committee the change is largely housekeeping: making an internal practice explicit to ensure continuity under future leadership and to give staff “more comfort” when denying information requests based on confidentiality. The director said the division currently relies on a detailed internal policy and a brief handbook statement; adopting a committee policy would make the confidentiality rule “a binding policy.”
Vice Chair Fields moved to approve the policy as presented; a committee member objected briefly for the purpose of discussion and asked Painter to explain. After Painter’s explanation the objector withdrew the objection and the chair declared the policy adopted by unanimous consent.
The committee did not take a roll-call vote; the adoption was announced by unanimous consent and no tally was recorded in the meeting transcript.
The policy applies to fiscal and budget-review requests submitted to the Legislative Finance Division and formalizes what staff said are existing practices for treating member requests as confidential. The committee did not amend the language during the meeting and no implementation timeline was discussed publicly.
The committee moved on to its next agenda item, continuing a multi-session review of the Alaska LNG project.
