This article has been updated.
Two senators introduced compromise webcasting legislation late Tuesday, keeping alive the hopes that live audio and video of the Senate’s proceedings could become available online before the end of the session.
Senate Resolution 4, sponsored by Mark Boitano, R-Albuquerque, and John Sapien, D-Corrales, must pass the Senate Rules Committee before it reaches the Senate floor. Boitano said in an interview he expects that to happen by Friday.
The resolution isn’t yet available online, but Boitano said it adopts, with a few tweaks, amendments Sapien proposed to Boitano’s first webcasting resolution, Senate Resolution 3, which led to the legislation being left in limbo on the Senate floor on Saturday.
The Rules Committee had already approved SR3, which would have implemented webcasting utilizing three cameras. Then came Sapien’s amendments, which allow only one camera, restrict allowable camera angles and create an oversight body to handle webcasting.
When the Senate added the amendments on Saturday, it ensured that SR3 needed approval of two-thirds of senators to pass, making the road difficult. By introducing the new resolution with the amendments already in place, Boitano is hoping the Rules Committee sends it as written to the Senate floor, so it would need only a simple majority to be approved — assuming it’s not amended again on the Senate floor.
Boitano said the lone camera that would be placed behind senators under the new legislation isn’t ideal, but “it’s better than no cameras.” He said he told Senate leaders that, if they can’t get SR4 through the Rules Committee by Friday, he’ll make a motion on that day to pull SR3 off the table and force senators to go on the record in support of or opposed to it.
Update, 1:15 p.m.
Here’s the link for Senate Resolution 4.