Virginia Freedom of Information Act; use of government email accounts required. (HB308)
Introduced By
Del. Rick Morris (R-Carrollton)
Progress
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Introduced |
✗ |
Passed Committee |
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Passed House |
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Passed Senate |
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Signed by Governor |
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Became Law |
Description
Virginia Freedom of Information Act; use of government email accounts required. Requires that any person elected, reelected, appointed or reappointed to any public body not excepted from FOIA must use only official government-provided email accounts to conduct public business The bill also provides that public officers, appointees, and employees shall use only official government-provided email accounts to conduct public business. However, if a public officer, appointee, or employee inadvertently uses a nongovernment email account to conduct public business, then the email and email address shall be forwarded to the appropriate official for retention as designated by the public body. The bill contains a technical amendment. Read the Bill »
Outcome
History
Date | Action |
---|---|
01/04/2016 | Committee |
01/04/2016 | Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/16 16101186D |
01/04/2016 | Referred to Committee on General Laws |
01/07/2016 | Impact statement from DPB (HB308) |
01/13/2016 | Impact statement from DPB (HB308) |
02/16/2016 | Left in General Laws |
Comments
Many governments (e.g. rural counties and towns) do not have the capacity to provide email accounts to their employees, and certainly not to elected officials and appointees. It's not clear to me whether it is permissible, under this bill, for a government to say "OK, here's a Gmail account we made for you—consider it your government email account."
The ACLU of Virginia supports this bill.