Let the Sunshine In on the Tennessee Legislature

From Bill Hobbs, we learn that a pair of Tennessee Republican legislators have filed a bill that would provide Tennessee residents a statute similar to the federal Freedom of Information Act, also known as FOIA. As with the federal statute, subject to certain exceptions, this proposed law would subject the Tennessee legislature to the same Open Records requirements currently in place for the federal government and its agencies and certain state agencies. This is a long overdue bill that needs to pass, and a loophole that, if filled, would go a long way toward shining some badly needed sunlight into the sometimes dirty back rooms, nooks, and crannies of Tennessee state government (think Tennessee Waltz, the state trooper scandal, etc.)