In March 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Legislature amended OPRA to provide that the 7-business day response deadline did not apply to OPRA requests during this public health emergency. Today, Gov. Murphy signed into law legislation that repeals this provision for most requests.

The legislation in question contains a number of provisions dealing with the Covid crisis. One section restores OPRA’s normal response deadline for requests. The section has one exception: “requests made for records related to the COVID-19 response” continue to be covered by the 2020 statute’s language removing the 7-day deadline requirement.