Before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the Statehouse last year, legislative committee meetings were relatively difficult for the general public to access. They were taped for posterity, but recordings were hard to come by. Only House and Senate floor proceedings were available via livestream, courtesy of Vermont Public Radio.
In the year since, lawmakers have grown accustomed to conducting floor votes, committee debates and caucus discussions by Zoom — and members of the public, the press and lobbyists have grown accustomed to accessing video of those proceedings on YouTube.
Now, the Senate is considering legislation that could make Statehouse business available to the public even after the pandemic is over. The bill, S.106, would require a public-private partnership to assess the cost of livestreaming all committee meetings and floor action for the legislative session in 2022, when lawmakers are expected to return to the Statehouse.
Sen. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, the Republican minority leader, said Monday that he became one of the bill’s two sponsors after learning what’s worked — and what hasn’t — during the pandemic.
“I don’t think anybody will get up and say that transparency in government is bad,” Brock said. Livestreaming “enables people to really hold us to account, and to see what’s actually going on in these committee rooms during the sausage-making of legislation. I think that’s a positive thing.”
While it’s unclear what the cost might be to equip the Statehouse for audio — and potentially video — livestreaming, Brock said he believes the project would be worth it.
“I am quite cheap and I don’t like to hardly invest in anything, but I think this is likely a very modest investment that we’ve already made,” Brock said. “To be able to do this, and letting people participate in democracy, is invaluable.”
House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, has said increased access to government is one of her priorities this biennium. In a recent interview, she told VTDigger that she has been working to get closed captioning on committee livestreams. She said she recognized how the pandemic has opened up a window on the Legislature.
“What we now have to start thinking about is how can we keep some of these, the good things — increasing access and transparency on Zoom — how do we keep those when we get back in the building?” Krowinski said.
In addition to moving toward permanent livestreaming, the bill would encourage all lobbyists working in the Statehouse to wear nametags identifying the person’s name and his or her client or lobbying firm. Lobbyist nametags aren’t required now in the Statehouse, but many already wear them.
The sergeant-at-arms would track compliance with nametag-wearing and make recommendations to legislators by Jan. 15, 2023, about whether more needs to be done to improve participation.
The lead sponsor of S.106, Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, has some experience in the lobbying realm. Prior to his 2014 appointment to the Senate, he spent decades as a Statehouse lobbyist.
Sirotkin, who has introduced versions of the nametag measure in the past, said Monday that his experience as both a legislator and lobbyist has informed his push to mandate nametags in the Statehouse.
“It would just make for a more familial relationship,” Sirotkin said.
He added that he believes the Legislature would function more efficiently if people knew each other’s names.
“There are times when, as a committee chair, I’ve had people in the room that if I knew who they were and who they were working for I might ask them a question,” Sirotkin said.
Austin Davis, a lobbyist for the Lake Champlain Chamber, said he has no complaints about either of the bill’s provisions. Davis said he and many others already wear nametags in the Legislature, and not many oppose continuing to livestream legislative business.
“It’s a nice thing to be very forward and open,” he said. “Lobbyists like it when legislators wear (nametags); legislators like it when lobbyists wear them.”
The Senate Committee on Government Operations is expected to take up the legislation on Tuesday.
