New York Consolidated Laws

N.Y. Public Officers Law § 88 (2026)

Access to state legislative records

✓ current as of May 2026

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§ 88. Access to state legislative records. 1. The temporary president
of the senate and the speaker of the assembly shall promulgate rules and
regulations for their respective houses in conformity with the
provisions of this article, pertaining to the availability, location and
nature of records, including, but not limited to:
  (a) the times and places such records are available;
  (b) the persons from whom such records may be obtained;
  (c) the fees for copies of such records, which shall not exceed
twenty-five cents per photocopy not in excess of nine inches by fourteen
inches, or the actual cost of reproducing any other record, except when
a different fee is otherwise prescribed by law.
  2. The state legislature shall, in accordance with its published
rules, make available for public inspection and copying:
  (a) bills and amendments thereto, fiscal notes, introducers' bill
memoranda, resolutions and amendments thereto, and index records;
  (b) messages received from the governor or the other house of the
legislature, and home rule messages;
  (c) legislative notification of the proposed adoption of rules by an
agency;
  (d) transcripts or minutes, if prepared, and journal records of public
sessions including meetings of committees and subcommittees and public
hearings, with the records of attendance of members thereat and records
of any votes taken;
  (e) internal or external audits and statistical or factual tabulations
of, or with respect to, material otherwise available for public
inspection and copying pursuant to this section or any other applicable
provision of law;
  (f) administrative staff manuals and instructions to staff that affect
members of the public;
  (g) final reports and formal opinions submitted to the legislature;
  (h) final reports or recommendations and minority or dissenting
reports and opinions of members of committees, subcommittees, or
commissions of the legislature;
  (i) any other files, records, papers or documents required by law to
be made available for public inspection and copying.
  (j) external audits conducted pursuant to section ninety-two of the
legislative law and schedules issued pursuant to subdivision two of
section ninety of the legislative law.
  3. Each house shall maintain and make available for public inspection
and copying: (a) a record of votes of each member in every session and
every committee and subcommittee meeting in which the member votes;
  (b) a record setting forth the name, public office address, title, and
salary of every officer or employee; and
  (c) a current list, reasonably detailed, by subject matter of any
records required to be made available for public inspection and copying
pursuant to this section.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 5 cases, 1994–2017 · leading case: Friedman v. Rice, 90 N.E.3d 800 (2017).

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Friedman v. Rice, 90 N.E.3d 800 (2017). “That is to say, under the plain language of that statute, "investigatory files compiled for law enforcement purposes," including witness statements, could be withheld from *810 **11 disclosure irrespective of the confidential nature of the information or its source.”

Matter of Weston v. Sloan, 643 N.E.2d 1071 (NY 1994). · cites it 5× “The issue presented is whether such information must be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Law (Public Officers Law § 88 [2] [FOIL]). We conclude that such information is generally disclosable under FOIL and, therefore, that the order of the Appellate Division denying…”

Polokoff-Zakarin v. Boggess, 62 A.D.3d 1141 (N.Y. App. Div. 2009). · cites it 7× “1 While FOIL, as it applies to agencies, is based on a presumption of access such that all records are available to the public unless they fall within a specific statutory exception (see Public Officers Law § 87 [2]), the Legislature is only obligated to disclose records that…”

Weston v. Sloan, 201 A.D.2d 778 (N.Y. App. Div. 1994). · cites it 3× “The authority for the request in this case, which was directed to the Legislature, must be found in either Public Officers Law § 88 or rule X, § 3 of the Rules of the Senate, * irrespective of the legislative declaration in Public Officers Law § 84.”

The Matter of Jesse Friedman v. Kathleen M. Rice (NY 2017). “Matter of Knight v Gold ( 53 AD2d 694 [2d Dept 1976]), the foundation for Matter of Moore v Santucci ( 151 AD2d 677 [2d Dept 1989]), relied on below, was based on a prior version of FOIL which broadly exempted all information that was "part of investigatory files compiled for…”

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