At the end of every budgetary session the JFC usually passes a sort of grab bag of "stuff" that they want to throw into the bill at the last minute. This year is no exception, as they tossed in a pile of wishes and hopes. Worry about those wishes and hopes, particularly with the current legislature.
Some things in the final motion are not unexpected, like removing the "anybody graduating from the school of hard knocks can be a teacher" provisions - for which the JFC was skewered widely. But some new stuff slipped in out of the blue, as seems to be happening with regularity during this legislative session. Particularly disturbing is a collection of measures intended to remove a lot of documents from public disclosure, including blocking access to almost all communications during the work of making laws. As always, none of the legislators seem to have any idea where the proposal came from - it apparently just got there on its own.
These documents have been crucial to understanding what is going on in the legislature, and restricting access to them could make it very difficult to prove wrongdoing or illegal acts. Additionally all drafting documents for bills would no longer be retained by the Legislative Reference Bureau. Perhaps this is an attempt to stave off any future John-Doe-Like investigations, or just to save embarrassment. In any case, it's a terrible step in the wrong direction. If we have learned anything in the last few years it's that the public deserves to know more about what is going on in government, not less.
The text of the motion is attached.