A resolution that would set the rules for live audio and video wecasting from the Senate floor was approved today by the Senate Rules Committee.
The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Kate Nash is reporting about the committee’s do-pass recommendation for Senate Resolution 3, sponsored by Mark Boitano, R-Albuquerque. The measure now heads to the Senate floor.
Last month, the Senate Committee’s Committee decided to take a step toward webcasting by allowing cameras to be reinstalled in the Senate gallery with the intention of beginning webcasting later this session. Boitano’s resolution would finalize that decision by setting in place the rules governing the webcasting.
The resolution, while allowing live webcasting from the floor, would prohibit archiving. The webcast would include a disclaimer that the audio and video are for the benefit of the public and political use is prohibited.
The decision last month to reinstall the cameras in the Senate was a shift for the bipartisan Committee’s Committee. Though equipment was purchased and installed last year for the purpose of webcasting audio and video from the Senate floor, the committee later killed that plan, blaming the budget crunch, and had the cameras taken down.
Earlier this year, on a vote of 30-10, the Senate voted to force that committee to reconsider its decision, which is what the committee did last month following immense public attention on the issue of webcasting.