The Senate Committee’s Committee decided this afternoon to take a step toward webcasting by allowing cameras to be reinstalled in the Senate gallery with the intention of beginning webcasting audio and video later this session, the Santa Fe New Mexican’s Kate Nash is reporting on her blog.
In the meantime, Nash writes, the committee plans to draft rules governing webcasting to present to the Senate Rules Committee.
According to Nash, the Senate still needs some money to set up the system and may need more to operate it, so there are still some details to work out.
The move comes the same day that the New Mexico Independent announced that it plans to webcast Friday morning’s meeting of the rules committee to increase public access to the debate on several ethics reform-proposals that will be considered. If allowed, it will be the first webcast of a Senate committee meeting. Similar committee webcasting by a Republican lawmaker forced the House earlier in the session to adopt rules on webcasting and begin live audio webcasting from the House floor and some committee rooms.
The decision to reinstall the cameras in the Senate is 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 killed that plan late last year, 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 today following immense public attention on the issue of webcasting.