The Council of the District of Columbia approved temporary legislation barring the public from hearing or seeing many types of the council’s deliberations.

In a trio of companion legislation, which declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend the Open Meetings Act of 2010, the definition of meeting is changed. The legislation provides for a public body’s ability to be privately briefed about potential terrorist or public health threats so long as no official action is taken, exempts from the act meetings between the council and the mayor provided that no official action is taken at such meeting,  and provides that a meeting will be deemed open to the public if the public body takes steps reasonably calculated to allow the public to view or hear the meeting while the meeting is taking place, or, if doing so is not technologically feasible, as soon thereafter as reasonably practicable.

The legislation adopted on April 1 lasts for 90 days under its emergency basis. The mayor still has the ability to veto the legislation. On April 22, the council will hold a public hearing to consider a permanent version of the bill.