Open Government: Providing Public Information in Electronic Searchable and Sortable Formats

December 19, 2022

Rod Bordelon

Rod Bordelon is an attorney and regulatory and legislative affairs consultant in Austin, Texas with over 30 years of experience in insurance, workers’ compensation, and health law. He is an eleven term gubernatorial appointee, former Commissioner of Workers’ Compensation, and former Public Insurance Counsel.

James Quintero

@JamesQuinteroTX

James Quintero is the policy director for the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Government for the People campaign. Since joining the Foundation in 2008, Quintero has focused extensively on: state & local government spending, taxes, debt, public pension reform, annexation, and local regulations.

Nathan Evenhar

Nathan Evenhar is from Dallas, Texas, and is a freshman at Texas Tech University studying economics. A first-generation American born to Soviet refugees, he has always had a deep appreciation for democratic institutions and economic freedom. He is passionate about working towards advancing the ideas that make the American dream possible. His primary policy interests are in economic and foreign policy.

Under Texas’ Public Information Act, government agencies are required to provide public information upon request, but often fail to do so in the requested format that is searchable and sortable.

Key points

– Access to public information in a searchable and sortable format is an essential tool for achieving increased government transparency and meaningful reform.

– The Public Information Act requires information be provided in a requested format if the information is maintained or feasibly created in that format.

– The Act should be amended to clarify that available formats include those allowing the information to be searched and sorted.

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