Tennessee House Bill HB0903

Tennessee 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/4/25
• Refer: 2/6/25

Caption

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 10, Chapter 7, relative to open records.

Summary

HB0903 amends Tennessee’s open records law to allow a records custodian to charge a requester a fee for the time spent collecting public records for inspection when the request reasonably requires more than one hour of employee time. Under current law as amended by this bill, a governmental entity may not require a written request or charge a fee to view a public record unless otherwise provided by law; HB0903 adds an exception for time-intensive requests. The first hour of employee time must be provided without charge, and any fee after that must be based on an hourly rate proportionate to the pay of the employee gathering the records. The bill is aimed at requests that require substantial staff time to assemble records for on-site inspection, rather than general access to public records. It does not appear to change the underlying right of access to public records, but it does create a new cost mechanism for certain requests and gives records custodians more discretion to recover labor costs associated with retrieval and preparation.

Impact

HB0903 would amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 10, Chapter 7, Section 10-7-503, by creating a new exception to the rule that public records may be viewed without a written request or charge. It would authorize records custodians to impose hourly labor fees for collecting records when the request takes more than one hour of employee time, while prohibiting charges for the first hour. This would affect governmental entities, records custodians, and members of the public seeking access to records, especially in cases involving large, complex, or labor-intensive requests.

Sentiment

No committee transcript or vote record is provided, so there is no direct evidence of debate or recorded support/opposition in the materials supplied. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears to reflect a policy preference for balancing public access with reimbursement of government labor costs, suggesting a pragmatic rather than ideological approach to open records administration.

Contention

The main point of contention is likely to be whether charging for staff time after the first hour creates a barrier to public access or is a fair way to offset the cost of fulfilling burdensome records requests. Supporters would likely emphasize administrative burden and cost recovery for custodians, while critics may argue that the fee structure could discourage transparency, especially for journalists, watchdog groups, and ordinary requesters with limited resources. The bill’s threshold of more than one hour and the requirement that fees be tied to employee pay are the key operational details that would shape that debate.