LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Since 1967, Arkansas's Freedom of Information Act has provided the public with the right to access the records of any state agency.
However Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Republican leaders are looking to update that law.
"To make our government smaller, we have to make it more efficient," Gov. Sanders said in a press conference announcing the special session. "To do so we will also update Arkansas Freedom of Information Act."
She called a special session with plans to enact tax cuts and revise the state's FOIA laws, claiming that the laws are being "weaponized" by some.
"Our current FOIA law puts me and my kids at risk," Sanders claimed. "So we will update sections of the law so that the sources and methods Arkansas State Police uses to protect me and my family outside of the governor's mansion, are not subject to disclosure."
The change would exempt records regarding the security provided to Sanders and others, which would include those who travel on the Arkansas State Police airplane. It would also block any release of communications within state agencies.
But as the special session began, lawmakers could not advance the proposed bill that would change the law. Senate President Bart Hester said a new bill was filed late Monday night as they faced public pressure from both Democrats and Republicans as well as transparency advocacy groups.
Hester told us that efforts to pass the FOIA bill "could extend the special session," but he felt confident there could be enough votes to pass it.
Robert Steinbuch, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said exempting the government's security intel is already law and denying the right of the public to question their government is not right.
"We need as the public and as the media to have the ability to seek those records and discover that wrongdoing and what they're doing seeks to undermine exactly that," Steinbuch described.
He asked if the goal is truly to get back towards more efficiency, then why are they only seeking to take the benefit for themselves?
"The biggest problem is that they're carving out huge swaths of material from being made available to the public and say it's no big deal because Washington, California and New York is doing it," Steinbuch said.
"We will in this practice and bring Arkansas in line with federal law and the laws of other states ranging from New York and California to Oklahoma and Alabama, lower taxes and more efficient government are our goals and they are certainly good, but they are not enough," Gov. Sanders said.
Steinbuch explained regardless of what changes are made they will have a ripple effect not only for the government but for Arkansans as a whole.
"If you don't have the ability as an Arkansan, and citizens use it, and the media uses it and the legislature uses it. If you don't have the ability to see what government's doing, we will be in tyranny," Steinbuch said.