Nicko from the Sunlight Foundation sez, “Despite significant strides towards improving public access to legislative proceedings, nearly a quarter of House hearings cannot be watched online despite recently instituted House rules — with the Appropriations Committee as the biggest offender, with 70 percent of its hearings unavailable on the Internet. The Appropriations Committee is at the heart of today’s debate about the budget and is responsible for writing the chamber’s spending bills.”
The Sunlight Foundation tracked 200 House hearings over 20 days to determine whether they were webcast live, plus 407 hearings from January 17 to April 2 to determine whether video from the proceedings were archived online. Twenty-five percent (49 of 200) of the hearings were not live-streamed, and 22 percent (91 of 407) were not archived on committee websites…
With 70 percent of its hearings offline, the Appropriations Committee’s practice appears to diverge from the House’s requirement of publishing video online to “the maximum extent practicable.” Nearly all other committees manage to put their proceedings online. Appropriators have a large hearing room that has cameras pre-installed. Were the committee to choose to meet in the Capitol building, it could request coverage from the House Recording Studio or meet in one of the new hearing rooms in the Capitol Visitor’s Center.
Committees Make Leap to Online Video, but Approps Doesn’t Get the Picture