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Committee advances bill to protect critical-infrastructure and homeland-security records from public disclosure
Summary
The House Government Operations Committee advanced HB 1640, a proposal to exempt certain critical-infrastructure and homeland-security records from public inspection; departmental witnesses said confidentiality is limited to information whose release would reveal security capabilities or operational tradecraft.
The House Government Operations Committee advanced House Bill 1640 on a party-line committee vote after sponsor remarks and agency testimony. The bill would keep from public inspection records that identify critical infrastructure, threats or attacks against infrastructure, terrorism-related threat information, and sensitive information shared by federal, state, local and private-sector partners.
Chairman Eldridge, the bill sponsor, said the measure is designed to shield information that could be used by “a bad actor” to carry out attacks on the state or elected officials and asked the committee for a positive recommendation. Graham Tudor, director of legislation for the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, told the committee that subsection (f) limits confidentiality to material where disclosure “would reveal security capabilities, analytical trade craft, operational methods, or specific threat indicators.”
Members raised concerns about potential overreach and sought assurances the statute would not be used to hide improper conduct. Representative Fritz said she had spent a career in federal work where secrecy was sometimes misused and asked what safeguards the bill contains. Tudor pointed to carve-outs negotiated with the coalition for open government, saying the bill does not prohibit disclosure of records related to alleged misconduct by law enforcement, excessive-use-of-force investigations, or judicial records such as affidavits and warrants; he also said the Office of Homeland Security will report annually to the General Assembly on threats against public officials and related investigations.
Legal counsel Doug Garrett clarified that the specific language some members cited currently appears in the senate version of the bill and not the introduced house version before the committee; he said the house would have to concur to add it. Garrett also said he would follow up with members about whether state and federal definitions of terrorism differ in ways that matter for the bill’s application.
The committee voted to advance HB 1640; the clerk reported 10 ayes, 1 nay and 2 present-not-voting, and the bill was forwarded to calendar and rules.
