The highly controversial bill to reform New Jersey's Open Public Records Act got derailed in Trenton today, just an hour before lawmakers in the assembly Appropriations Committee were scheduled to vote on changes to the OPRA bill.

Top legislators pulled it and said they need more time to work through amendments.

The decision comes after intense backlash from the public watchdog groups and journalists who argue the bill would gut government transparency and make it harder for the public to access important documents.

Senior writer Colleen O'Dea is with me now for the latest.

Colleen, a little bit of an upheaval in Trenton today.

Why was this bill pulled?

So on Monday, there were hearings into committees and there were many, many dozens.

I didn't even try to count of people, including just regular folks, not just people representing organizations who came out in opposition to this bill.

Senator Sarlo, who's the sponsor in the Senate, recently put out a statement saying that people testified on both sides.

And I mean, that's technically true, but it was 95% in opposition to this bill.

And while the vote didn't reflect that in the committees, I think that the pressure has continued to be on for days and that the leaders of the houses thought maybe we should take a step back, as everyone is saying, to do and try to to work on some amendments that work for people.

So for the critics of the bill, is this considered a victory or what happens next?

So they're applauding that.

We're taking a breather here and taking a step back.

But it remains to be seen whether stakeholders are going to be brought to the table.

As Speaker Coughlin said in his statement announcing that the bill was not going to be heard today.

I think one of the complaints and there were a bunch of people on a call yesterday of activists complaining about the legislation, You know, many said that there were some discussions over the summer about this, but that anything that was brought up was not included in the bill.

So they felt that there really weren't they really were questioned about this before it came forward.

So they really do want to have a say in what this bill is going to do.

And is there any indication, Colleen, that those stakeholders will get an opportunity to be part of the reform process?

I mean, there was an op ed from Mark Phifer at the Blasting school who essentially helped to craft what is the OPRA bill saying?

You know, this process was always meant to have these stakeholders at the table in order to serve those who use it.

Is there any indication from legislative leaders that that's going to happen?

I mean, not yet, except that the speaker said that they should be brought to the table.

So it seems as if he is giving a commitment that will that that will happen.

If they don't, you know, that we will all know about it because everyone will continue to speak out about it.

But yes, Mark's op ed dropped today.

He also sent letters to all of the legislators and so perhaps that had a little bit of an influence in terms of saying, you know, this this really does need to take time.

But the law that we currently have was worked on for more than a year.

It wasn't something that was tried to be rammed through in a course of a couple of weeks.

Yeah, Well, and this instance, that's a lot of what was brought up in the hearing just yesterday in terms of people not even having, you know, a full week to digest what is a pretty extensive piece of legislation.

Right.

And what we had expected to happen today was that there would be some amendments that would not be available on long before the bill was heard.

Maybe they would be available to people in the room, but on paper, no one will have had time, including members, to look at that before they were going to be asked to vote on it.

And, you know, is that the right way to to craft legislation?

I think the answer is pretty obvious.

Colleen O'Dea for us, obviously, we will stay on this.

Colleen, thanks so much.

Thank you Bri.