Arkansas Senate panel hears hours of testimony on SB9 FOIA changes; sponsors cite security, critics warn of transparency rollback

Senate State Agencies & Governmental Affairs convened a marathon public hearing on SB9, a special-session bill that would carve out new FOIA exemptions for certain governor-related records and expand attorney-client protections for state communications, while tightening when requesters can recover attorney—s fees.

Senator Clark Hester, sponsor of the measure, said the proposal is driven by security concerns and recent threats to the governor and her family and by the need to let the governor—s office communicate quickly with cabinet heads. "What I believe the most important part of this bill addresses is the protection of the governor of Arkansas and the first family," Hester said in his opening remarks. He described changes made after overnight work and public feedback and said the proposal limits the exemption to direct communications between the governor (or her staff) and cabinet-level secretaries.

But much of the hearing focused on two other parts of the bill that senators and outside experts said reach well beyond narrowly tailored security protections.

First, multiple witnesses warned that subsection 31—which would make records privileged when…