North Carolina § 120-19 - State officers, etc., upon request, to furnish data and information to legislative committees or commissions.

§ 120-19. State officers, etc., upon request, to furnish data and information to legislative committees or commissions.

Except as provided in G.S. 105-259, all officers, agents, agencies and departments of the State are required to give to any committee of either house of the General Assembly, or any committee or commission whose funds are appropriated or transferred to the General Assembly or to the Legislative Services Commission for disbursement, upon request, all information and all data within their possession, or ascertainable from their records. This requirement is mandatory and shall include requests made by any individual member of the General Assembly, one of its standing committees or the chair of a standing committee, or any other legislative panel duly appointed by the President Pro Tempore and/or the Speaker of the House or an agent or employee of such a legislative panel. History (Resolution 19, 1937, p. 927; 1993, c. 485, s. 37; 2001-491, s. 33.1; 2019-80, s. 3.) Editor's Note. - Session Laws 2019-80, s. 4, provides: "Effective when this act becomes law [July 4, 2019], the head of each State agency, department, and institution shall notify its employees of the changes made by this act." Effect of Amendments. - Session Laws 2019-80, s. 3, effective July 4, 2019, in the second sentence, substituted "Assembly" for "Assembly or" and added "or any other legislative panel duly appointed by the President Pro Tempore and/or the Speaker of the House or an agent or employee of such a legislative panel." Opinions of Attorney General Committee Membership Not Required of Individual Members of General Assembly. - A member of the General Assembly need not also be a member of a committee of the General Assembly, investigative or otherwise, to invoke this section to gain access to otherwise confidential State personnel information so long as the information sought is or appears necessary to the fulfillment of the requestor's duties and responsibilities as a member of the General Assembly. See opinion of Attorney General to the Honorable John T. Henley, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Honorable Carl J. Stewart, Jr., Speaker of the House of Representatives. 48 N.C.A.G. 84 (1979).