Senate Judiciary votes to recommend ITL for HB 66 after lengthy right-to-know debate

The New Hampshire Senate Judiciary Committee voted to recommend Inexpedient to Legislate (ITL) on HB 66, a bill that would replace the word “citizen” with “person” in the state’s right-to-know statute and add limits on how and when public bodies must provide records to out-of-state requesters. The committee’s action followed several hours of testimony from lawmakers, municipal officials, police representatives and transparency advocates.

Sponsor Rep. Bob Lynn, a Windham Republican, framed the bill as a clarification of the existing statute: “This bill makes several, important changes to the right to know law. First, it replaces the undefined term citizen in current law with the word person,” he told the committee, adding the change was meant to reflect how courts and agencies have treated requests. Lynn also described a provision that would require out-of-state requesters who lack a New Hampshire connection to appear in person to receive records that are not already…