Ken Cuccinelli: An AG for Open Government

Senator Ken Cuccinelli Speaks at Virginia Coalition for Open Government Fall Conference Cuccinelli is one of only two Virginia Senators who are members of the Coalition.

Staunton, VA.-- Earlier today, State Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-37), candidate for Attorney General of Virginia, spoke at the Virginia Coalition for Open Government's fall conference in Staunton. Senator Cuccinelli is one of only two Virginia Senators who is a member of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. "I would like to salute the Virginia Coalition for Open Government for all their hard work in pushing our common agenda," said Senator Cuccinelli. He continued, "As many of you know, I have long supported policies to open up our government to the citizens of this Commonwealth. For example, I have pushed to allow taxpayers to see exactly where their tax dollars are spent in government so that our elected officials are held accountable for every dollar. I strongly believe that this is the best way to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse in government. As your next Attorney General, I will lead the way on promoting open government by putting the budget of the Attorney General's office on-line for all to see." Senator Cuccinelli is well known for his strong legislative record to hold government accountable and to keep its deliberations and actions open to the people: In 2009, he successfully pushed legislation to begin making the entire Virginia budget available to taxpayers. The first department to be completely available on-line will be the Department of Transportation. In 2008, he first sponsored the legislation that would have created a searchable budget database website to allow persons to search and aggregate information for individual or specific appropriations or budget items. In 2004, he voted to require that all state government agencies that are subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) make the following information available to the public (i) a plain English explanation of the rights of a requester under FOIA, the procedures to obtain public records from the agency, and the responsibilities of the agency in complying with FOIA; (ii) contact information for the person designated by the agency to assist or respond to requests for public records; and (iii) any policy the agency has concerning the type of public records it routinely withholds from release as permitted by FOIA. As the Attorney General of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli will play a major role in further pushing for open government policies. Officially, the Attorney General is called upon to interpret the Freedom of Information in opinion requests; has a designee on the FOI Advisory Council; and represents state agencies in FOIA litigation. For these reasons, it is important that the Attorney General be a strong supporter of open government policies. The Virginia Coalition for Open Government is a nonprofit alliance formed to promote expanded access to government records, meetings and other proceedings at the state and local level. Their efforts are focused solely on local/state information access. The Coalition Web site's list of Virginia public official who are members may be found at:http://www.opengovva.org/about-us/members-elected-officials