Procurement-Open Government Subcommittee

Tuesday, February 24, 2026·33m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Procurement-Open Government Subcommittee advanced bills on electronic conflict-of-interest disclosures, public meeting agenda posting, and construction contract retainage bonds, while laying on the table a long-contested FOIA fee reform bill after a key committee member said he could not bring an unchanged bill back to his caucus.

Key Actions

·SB56 – FOIA Fee ReformNo Vote

+ 3 more actions

Controversies

Whether SB56 had changed enough for Delegate Simon to support it

Delegate Simon stated he could not bring back to his caucus 'the exact same bill with no changes, nothing that's moved at all,' having already made the motion to refer it back to committee on the floor the prior year. Senator Rouse confirmed nothing had changed from last year but offered to work on a minor modification during the week or adopt a concept amendment limiting requester email obligations, while the chair cautioned that going by for the week does not guarantee another subcommittee meeting.

+ 4 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“Senator Row? Yes. Thank you. So, Madam Chair, I would tell the delegate that we debated that very specific issue in FOIA Advisory Council for a good amount of time. And actually, we've got Alan Garner from FOIA Advisory Council to be able to speak to that as well. What I'm going to tell you on that part is we were trying to get to a place where the fee is not going to be used as a deterrent. Right. And so if we were just using. Using the standard base pay that that person was making, we wouldn't have to get into all the variables that were going to be coming into”
Megan Ryan, Virginia Coalition for Open Government — Testifying in favor of SB56, which would limit FOIA fees to the median hourly salary of the department employee responding to the request, Ryan argued Virginia's current unlimited fee structure prices people out of accessing public records.

+ 4 more quotes

Votes

SB50 – Go by for the dayPassed

SB56 – Lay on the tablePassed

SB530 – Report with substitute and refer to AppropriationsPassed

SB699 – ReportPassed

SB165 – ReportPassed

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TranscriptPreview

Members will indicate their presence on the electronic voting system. All right, a quorum is present. Thank you. Members, we have a brief docket to cover today. First, we have one administrative item. We have SB50 by Senator Rouse. Needs to go by for the day. Do I hear a motion move to go by for the day? Second. All right. It's been moved improperly seconded that bill. Go by for the day. All those in favor say Aye. All opposed? All right. SB50 is by for the day. First up on the docket to present, we have SB56 by Senator Rome. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the subcommittee, SB 56 is a bill that if you're, say, Delegate Simon, you've had to See now Since 2018 in some shape or form again and again and again and again. Oh, right. And if you're Delegate Delaney, you have to also have seen this bill over and over and over again. So this bill has gone through the FOIA Advisory Council twice. And what this bill does is it reforms the FOIA fee system so that we would be allowing FOIA fees to only be charged based on the median…

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