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Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie didnt say much during Sunshine Week, a yearly commemoration each March of open government and freedom of information.

New Yorkers deserve a government that works for them and does so in an open and transparent fashion, the Brooklyn Democrat said in a news release.

Thats more than he said in defense of a three-year-old Assembly policy limiting reporters access to the state Assembly chambers and the areas surrounding the chambers which used to be a good place for reporters to get information from Assembly members and their staff.

Heastie and his fellow Democrats were silent after voting down a Republican effort to restore press access to pre-pandenic levels. Not one Democrat gave a reason why access should be limited. The silence was, in our opinion, deafening.

For years reporters had access to legislators in the state Capitol chambers as long as they didnt interrupt the work of the Senate or Assembly. Often, that meant impromptu queston-and-answer sessions outside some influential legislators offices because that was the best way for reporters to be able to ask questions when those legislators didnt return phone calls. Of course, Heasties office was a popular place for the press since that was the best way to ask questions of the Assembly speaker.

When COVID-19 hit, access was limited. That made some sense at a time when the full Assembly or Senate couldnt be in the chamber at one time under rules meant to allow lawmakers to be socially distant from each other. When the Assembly chamber reopened to the public, reporters have been limited to seats in the back of the chamber and in front of its rostrum. But now, with natural immunity and vaccines available, there is no reason for COVID-19 limitations on the press to remain. But remain they do, Republicans recently introduced changes to the Assemblys rules that would have restored reporters access to the Assembly chamber and areas near the chamber, but they were defeated in a party line vote.

His actions, and those of his fellow Democrats, show its easier to pay lip service to open government than it is to actually provide open government.

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