S 2520: Relates to the maximum allowable time frames to respond to requests for records under the freedom of information act.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2520 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE January 21, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. SKOUFIS, BRISPORT, JACKSON, KRUEGER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Government Operations AN ACT to amend the public officers law, in relation to time frames for responding to requests for records under the freedom of information act The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 89 of the public officers law, as 2 amended by chapter 223 of the laws of 2008 and paragraph (c) as added by 3 chapter 47 of the laws of 2018, is amended to read as follows: 4 3. (a) Each entity subject to the provisions of this article, within 5 five business days of the receipt of a written request for a record 6 reasonably described, shall make such record available to the person 7 requesting it, deny such request in writing or furnish a written 8 acknowledgement of the receipt of such request [and a statement of the 9 approximate date, which shall be reasonable under the circumstances of 10 the request, when such request will be granted or denied], including, 11 where appropriate, a statement that access to the record will be deter- 12 mined in accordance with subdivision five of this section. If such 13 acknowledgement is not furnished within five business days, such request 14 shall be deemed denied and is appealable. 15 (i) (A) An acknowledgement shall include a statement of the approxi- 16 mate date, which shall be reasonable under the circumstances of the 17 request and which shall not exceed thirty days from receipt of the 18 original request, when such request will be granted or denied, and a 19 statement explaining why such delay is necessary under the circumstance 20 of the request. If a response is not issued by the date stated in the 21 acknowledgment, the request shall be deemed denied and is appealable, 22 except as provided for in clause (B) of this subparagraph. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD02197-01-5 
 S. 2520 2 1 (B) An agency may only extend the response date beyond thirty days if 2 such agency determines to grant a request in whole or in part and if the 3 agency is unable to complete its response within thirty days. In such 4 case, such agency shall state in writing both the reason that the 5 response could not be completed within thirty days and provide a date no 6 later than sixty days from receipt of the original request when such 7 request shall be granted in whole or in part. In no case shall an agency 8 take longer than sixty days to respond to a request. If a full response 9 is not issued within sixty days, the request shall be deemed denied and 10 is appealable. 11 (ii) An agency shall not deny a request on the basis that the request 12 is voluminous or that locating or reviewing the requested records or 13 providing the requested copies is burdensome because the agency lacks 14 sufficient staffing or on any other basis if the agency may engage an 15 outside professional service to provide copying, programming or other 16 services required to provide the copy, the costs of which the agency may 17 recover pursuant to paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section eighty- 18 seven of this article. 19 (iii) An agency may require a person requesting lists of names and 20 addresses to provide a written certification that such person will not 21 use such lists of names and addresses for solicitation or fund-raising 22 purposes and will not sell, give or otherwise make available such lists 23 of names and addresses to any other person for the purpose of allowing 24 that person to use such lists of names and addresses for solicitation or 25 fund-raising purposes. If an agency determines to grant a request in 26 whole or in part, and if circumstances prevent disclosure to the person 27 requesting the record or records within twenty business days from the 28 date of the acknowledgement of the receipt of the request, the agency 29 shall state, in writing, both the reason for the inability to grant the 30 request within twenty business days and a date certain within a reason- 31 able period, depending on the circumstances, when the request will be 32 granted in whole or in part. 33 (iv) Upon payment of, or offer to pay, the fee prescribed therefor, 34 the entity shall provide a copy of such record and certify to the 35 correctness of such copy if so requested, or as the case may be, shall 36 certify that it does not have possession of such record or that such 37 record cannot be found after diligent search. 38 (v) Nothing in this article shall be construed to require any entity 39 to prepare any record not possessed or maintained by such entity except 40 the records specified in subdivision three of section eighty-seven and 41 subdivision three of section eighty-eight of this article. When an agen- 42 cy has the ability to retrieve or extract a record or data maintained in 43 a computer storage system with reasonable effort, it shall be required 44 to do so. When doing so requires less employee time than engaging in 45 manual retrieval or redactions from non-electronic records, the agency 46 shall be required to retrieve or extract such record or data electron- 47 ically. Any programming necessary to retrieve a record maintained in a 48 computer storage system and to transfer that record to the medium 49 requested by a person or to allow the transferred record to be read or 50 printed shall not be deemed to be the preparation or creation of a new 51 record. 52 (b) All entities shall, provided such entity has reasonable means 53 available, accept requests for records submitted in the form of elec- 54 tronic mail and shall respond to such requests by electronic mail, using 55 forms, to the extent practicable, consistent with the form or forms 56 developed by the committee on open government pursuant to subdivision 
 S. 2520 3 1 one of this section and provided that the written requests do not seek a 2 response in some other form. 3 (c) Each state agency, as defined in subdivision five of this section, 4 that maintains a website shall ensure its website provides for the 5 online submission of a request for records pursuant to this article. 6 § 2. This act shall take effect January 1, 2026.