Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, multiple protests have been held outside U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson’s Bellefonte office.

That includes a March 18 event where constituents voiced frustration over the Republican’s support of funding cuts under the Trump administration.

Thompson did not appear despite knowing about the event, Margie Swoboda, chair of the Centre County Democrats, told the Centre Daily Times: “We wish he would be here to talk with us — that’s all we want.”

Pinpointing exactly what Thompson was doing that day is impossible without him disclosing it. The U.S. House wasn’t in session, and Thompson — whose district includes all or part of 18 counties in north-central Pennsylvania — doesn’t have to share his schedule.

Neither federal nor state open records laws allow the public to access their elected leaders’ work calendars.

At the federal level, the Freedom of Information Act applies only to agencies and does not cover Congress, said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, of which Spotlight PA is a member. “Congress wrote the law, and they did not write it to include themselves or their own records,” she said.

Spotlight PA asked Thompson’s office to provide his work calendar. A spokesperson did not respond to the request but said in an email, “Mr. Thompson and his staff have held more than 500 meetings in the district and Washington, DC with constituents on a wide range of topics. … He frequently holds telephone town halls, which enable engagement with thousands of residents of the 15th District.”

(The news outlet also sought the calendars of three other congressional representatives for the area; none responded.)

In Pennsylvania, the public can access some legislative records in a limited fashion, Melewsky told Spotlight PA. The state’s Right-to-Know Law defines 19 categories of information regarding the General Assembly — mostly dealing with the receipt and expenditure of public funds — that are accessible to the public.

But the work calendars of Pennsylvania legislators do not fit into any of the categories and similarly remain out of reach from constituents, she said.

“How (elected officials) spend their time is just as important as how they spend our money,” Melewsky said. “Because the law isn’t helpful … the public really has to depend on the good graces of their public officials to recognize why it’s important to have transparency and disclosure of this kind of information.”

Details of meetings legislators have with constituents, colleagues, lobbyists, or special interest groups could shed light on the forces influencing the views of lawmakers that ultimately inform public policy decisions. Understanding what is discussed in these meetings or how often people from inside and outside the government interact with officials lends transparency to their work.

The issue of calendar access has played a role in the governance of Pennsylvania before. Former Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, fought a lengthy legal battle during his administration with an Associated Press reporter. While Corbett ended up providing some information on how he spent his work time, the negative attention drew criticism from his opponent and successor, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. Wolf made transparency about his calendars a tradition during his eight-year tenure, which Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro did not continue.

Melewsky said that officials and agencies are free to make this information available even when the law does not guarantee it to the public, and that they are free to exercise discretion over sensitive information.

“The public has a right to know,” she said. “For practical purposes and from a good-government perspective, there should be transparency related to that.”

MIN XIAN | Spotlight PA State College

This story originally appeared in Talk of the Town, a weekly newsletter of local stories that dig deep, events, and more from the Spotlight PA State College bureau. Sign up at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/talkofthetown.

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