Shown verbatim: the complete text as captured from the official source posted by the New York State Senate, fetched 2026-08-11. Nothing is edited or removed. Where this bill amends existing law, language marked for deletion in the official source appears here in brackets. The official bill page.
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
2520--B
Cal. No. 1434
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
I N S E N A T E
January 21, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. SKOUFIS, BRISPORT, CLEARE, JACKSON, KRUEGER, C. RYAN
-- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to
the Committee on Investigations and Government Operations -- reported
favorably from said committee, ordered to first and second report,
amended on second report, ordered to a third reading, and to be
reprinted as amended, retaining its place in the order of third read-
ing -- reported favorably from said committee to third reading,
amended and ordered reprinted, retaining its place in the order of
third reading
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:
Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 89 of the public officers law, as
amended by chapter 223 of the laws of 2008 and paragraph (c) as added by
chapter 47 of the laws of 2018, is amended to read as follows:
3. (a) Each entity subject to the provisions of this article, within
five business days of the receipt of a written request for a record
reasonably described, shall make such record available to the person
requesting it, deny such request in writing or furnish a written
acknowledgement of the receipt of such request and a statement of the
approximate date, which shall be reasonable under the circumstances of
the request, when such request will be granted or denied, including,
where appropriate, a statement that access to the record will be deter-
mined in accordance with subdivision five of this section. An agency
shall not deny a request on the basis that the request is voluminous or
that locating or reviewing the requested records or providing the
requested copies is burdensome because the agency lacks sufficient
staffing or on any other basis if the agency may engage an outside
professional service to provide copying, programming or other services
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02197-07-5
S. 2520--B 2
required to provide the copy, the costs of which the agency may recover
pursuant to paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section eighty-seven of
this article. An agency may require a person requesting lists of names
and addresses to provide a written certification that such person will
not use such lists of names and addresses for solicitation or fund-rais-
ing purposes and will not sell, give or otherwise make available such
lists of names and addresses to any other person for the purpose of
allowing that person to use such lists of names and addresses for solic-
itation or fund-raising purposes. If an agency determines to grant a
request in whole or in part, and if circumstances prevent disclosure to
the person requesting the record or records within twenty business days
from the date of the acknowledgement of the receipt of the request, the
agency shall state, in writing, both the reason for the inability to
grant the request within twenty business days and a date certain within
a reasonable period, depending on the circumstances, when the request
will be granted in whole or in part, PROVIDED, HOWEVER, THAT SUCH DATE
CERTAIN SHALL MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF SUBDIVISION THREE-A OF THIS
SECTION. Upon payment of, or offer to pay, the fee prescribed therefor,
the entity shall provide a copy of such record and certify to the
correctness of such copy if so requested, or as the case may be, shall
certify that it does not have possession of such record or that such
record cannot be found after diligent search. Nothing in this article
shall be construed to require any entity to prepare any record not
possessed or maintained by such entity except the records specified in
subdivision three of section eighty-seven and subdivision three of
section eighty-eight of this article. When an agency has the ability to
retrieve or extract a record or data maintained in a computer storage
system with reasonable effort, it shall be required to do so. When doing
so requires less employee time than engaging in manual retrieval or
redactions from non-electronic records, the agency shall be required to
retrieve or extract such record or data electronically. Any programming
necessary to retrieve a record maintained in a computer storage system
and to transfer that record to the medium requested by a person or to
allow the transferred record to be read or printed shall not be deemed
to be the preparation or creation of a new record.
(b) All entities shall, provided such entity has reasonable means
available, accept requests for records submitted in the form of elec-
tronic mail and shall respond to such requests by electronic mail, using
forms, to the extent practicable, consistent with the form or forms
developed by the committee on open government pursuant to subdivision
one of this section and provided that the written requests do not seek a
response in some other form.
(c) Each state agency, as defined in subdivision five of this section,
that maintains a website shall ensure its website provides for the
online submission of a request for records pursuant to this article.
§ 2. Section 89 of the public officers law is amended by adding a new
subdivision 3-a to read as follows:
3-A. (A) AGENCIES MUST MAKE RECORDS AVAILABLE TO THE PERSON REQUESTING
THEM WITHIN THE TIMEFRAMES BELOW IF SUCH AGENCY HAS DETERMINED TO GRANT
A REQUEST IN WHOLE OR IN PART:
(I) WITHIN ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY DAYS FOR REQUESTS MADE PRIOR TO DECEMBER
THIRTY-FIRST, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-SIX;
(II) WITHIN NINETY DAYS FOR REQUESTS MADE BETWEEN JANUARY FIRST, TWO
THOUSAND TWENTY-SEVEN, AND DECEMBER THIRTY-FIRST, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-
SEVEN; OR
S. 2520--B 3
(III) WITHIN SIXTY DAYS FOR REQUESTS MADE ON OR AFTER JANUARY FIRST,
TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-EIGHT.
(B) IF AN AGENCY DETERMINES THAT RECORDS CANNOT BE MADE AVAILABLE
WITHIN THE RELEVANT TIMEFRAME, SUCH AGENCY MAY INSTEAD MAKE THE RECORDS
AVAILABLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IF ONE OR MORE OF THESE CONDITIONS APPLY:
(I) FEDERAL LAW OR REGULATION PREVENTS THE AGENCY FROM REVIEWING OR
PROVIDING RESPONSIVE RECORDS WITHIN THE RELEVANT TIMEFRAME;
(II) AGENCY EMPLOYEES ARE UNABLE TO SAFELY ACCESS RESPONSIVE RECORDS;
OR
(III) RESPONSIVE RECORDS ARE SO VOLUMINOUS THAT THE AGENCY COULD NOT
REASONABLY REVIEW SUCH RECORDS WITHIN THE RELEVANT TIMEFRAME.
(C) IF THE AGENCY MAKES SUCH DETERMINATION, IT SHALL NOTIFY THE PERSON
WHO MADE THE REQUEST IN WRITING. SUCH NOTIFICATION SHALL EXPLAIN IN
DETAIL WHY THE AGENCY IS UNABLE TO PROVIDE THE RECORDS WITHIN THE
REQUIRED TIMEFRAME AND WHAT EFFORTS ARE BEING UNDERTAKEN TO MAKE THE
RECORDS AVAILABLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THE AGENCY SHALL ALSO PROVIDE THE
PERSON WHO MADE THE REQUEST MONTHLY UPDATES ON PROGRESS. THE AGENCY
SHALL ALSO NOTIFY THE COMMITTEE ON OPEN GOVERNMENT IN WRITING. THE
NOTIFICATIONS TO BOTH THE REQUESTOR AND THE COMMITTEE SHALL BE SIGNED BY
THE AGENCY'S COMMISSIONER.
§ 3. This act shall take effect January 1, 2026.Every fact on this page links to its source, starting with the official bill record.