Ever want to look up basic information about your legislator?It's tough to do when your legislator's website is down for seven months , which is currently what happens every other year to House members.
Starting this summer, however, constituents will have full year-round access to information related to their legislators’ work thanks to HB 1761. Authored by Rep. Bob Hasegawa, the measure keeps official legislative websites up and running without alteration throughout the year, regardless of pending elections.
Since, rightfully, legislators may not use public resources to assist their campaigns, when the internet took off and state lawmakers began maintaining web pages, the Legislative Ethics Board ruled that those websites had to be stripped of all but very basic information during campaign season, which is every other year for House members and every four years for the Senate. This meant all material prepared by staff for legislators in the course of their duties, including legislative press releases and newsletters, had to be removed from the websites, leaving only contact information and bill sponsorship.
“In previous election years I’ve had people coming up to me or calling my office asking why there was nothing on my website, going as far as saying that we must be trying to hide something,” said Hasegawa. “This bill is about government transparency. Constituents deserve to know what we’ve been doing for the past two years.”
