Committee advances bill to shield critical-infrastructure and homeland-security information from public inspection

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).