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Committee advances bill to shield critical-infrastructure and homeland-security information from public inspection
Summary
House Bill 1640, as amended, would classify records identifying critical infrastructure, related threats, and sensitive partner information as confidential; the sponsor and members emphasized alignment with federal definitions while lawmakers sought confirmation that investigations into officer misconduct would remain disclosable. The bill moved to Government Operations.
Representative Eldridge presented House Bill 1640 (with amendment 15781), a measure to protect records identifying critical infrastructure and information about threats (including terrorism, targeted violence, sabotage and foreign-adversary activity) from public inspection.
Sponsor explanation emphasized that the legislation aligns state law with federal regulations and protections used by other states to prevent disclosure of sensitive homeland-security information and to preserve confidentiality of vulnerability assessments. Representative Pal asked whether the bill would unintentionally protect records relating to investigations of misconduct by law-enforcement officers; Eldridge and subsequent clarifications made on the record indicated that records related to misconduct investigations and excessive-force probes would not be shielded by the bill.
Members discussed modern threats such as drone surveillance and other technology-driven vulnerabilities in justifying the confidentiality carve-out. The committee approved the amendment and sent the bill to the Government Operations committee (vote: 20 yes, 1 no).
