Government Efficiency Committee to Comply With CORA Request; Personal Data Being Redacted

The Committee on Government Efficiency said it will comply with a court request for submissions to its government-efficiency portal but is redacting sensitive personal information from nearly 2,000 submissions before release, the committee chair said during a meeting.

Committee members were told the portal submissions were always intended to be gathered and categorized for interim consideration, but that some contributors included highly personal details that staff consider inappropriate for public release. "We will comply with that request ... we are just making sure that we, redact any personal information that would be of detriment to people while complying with the request," the committee chair said.

The chair said staff are working through the volume and will provide an update on March 14. Senator Schmidt asked when committee members would be granted access; the chair said leadership has requested access and staff are working to provide it. "We have had requests from Democrat leadership and we are working on getting them access, to those submissions, so that they do have access to those," the chair said.

Members raised concerns about scope and privacy. Senator Thomas asked whether constituent emails would also be turned over; the chair replied that materials submitted via the committee portal or committee email would be provided but not members' personal emails. Senator Thompson cautioned that the accumulated submissions could become a "fishing expedition" over time and urged care in how the material is used.

The committee has not voted on any policy or made any final determinations about the contents; staff said they will comply with the request while redacting personal data and will report back to the committee on progress on March 14.