The decision is welcome news to open government advocates who voiced strong opposition to the proposed restrictions since they were announced eight months ago. Earlier this summer, workers and environmentalists protested against the proposal, picketing the office of New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey. Protestors maintain that the proposed rules would have amounted to an "information lockout" and assert that safety, not secrecy should be the focus of state efforts.
According to New Jersey’s Acting Governor Richard J. Codey, input from public interest groups and media attention around the issue played a major role in the attorney general's decision to reconsider the secrecy rules. Specifically, an August 18 letter from Codey to the New Jersey Work Environment Council (WEC) read, "It is my understanding that based on substantive input received at the July 22 hearing and in written form during the two open public comment periods, the Department of Law and Public Safety has decided not to adopt the rule as proposed."
Rick Engler, executive director of WEC, comments that, "New Jersey open government advocates have convinced the attorney general's office that their proposed rule was far too sweeping and would have endangered worker and community health, as well as jeopardized federal funding for state safety enforcement." WEC is coalition of 70 labor, environmental, and community organizations that advocates for safe, secure jobs and a healthy, sustainable environment.