State Legislatures Magazine: May 1998

Editor's note: These articles appeared in the May 1998 issues of NCSL's magazine, State Legislatures. To order copies of the magazine or to subscribe, contact the marketing department at (303) 364-7700.

Legislatures Live via the Web
The Virtues of Virtual Meetings

Legislatures Live via the Web

A number of states keep citizens up-to-date with audio and video coverage of legislative sessions.

By Gene Rose

Susan Esvelt felt passionate about House Bill 2418 and worked hard to prepare testimony for a Washington Senate Education Committee hearing. In her search for more information on the bill, friends suggested she turn to her new computer.

"My testimony changed that night," she said.

What Esvelt discovered that evening was TVW, a private nonprofit service providing Washington citizens unedited coverage of state government through cable television and the Internet. Because TVW provides live and archived events of all legislative proceedings online, it's becoming an important communication tool for citizens like Esvelt, who lives in a rural area outside Snohomish about an hour and a half away from the capital. With Internet access, a modem with a minimum 28.8 speed and free RealMedia software, citizens across the country are tuning in with their personal computers to find out what their state lawmakers are doing.

With notepad in hand, "I listened to the testimony of everyone at the education committee hearing the night before and what I learned was incredible," said Esvelt, who modified her testimony for the following evening based on what she heard over the Internet. "For accuracy and information, there is nothing better than this."

While TVW can boast of numerous accomplishments and awards in bringing government closer to state constituents, TVW President Denny Heck, a former state legislator, says he is most proud of the audio and video service over the Internet. "In all the things we've tried to do for the public in terms of service, nothing comes close," he says.

TVW took the first step in January 1996 when it provided audio of videotaped events through the Internet and broadcast the governor's State of the State address live. When word of the service became known, about 1,000 people a month accessed the Internet site.

Fast forward two years later. In the first two months of 1998, 24,000 viewers and listeners logged onto the TVW site that now includes real-time video and archives of all legislative events.

Richard Brown, assistant clerk of the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature, said a presentation Heck made at an NCSL meeting served as motivation to continue the "longstanding commitment to provide legislative coverage to all Nebraskans." The unicameral body has made some form of television coverage available to constituents since the 1970s.

This year, Nebraska launched UniCAM Live!— an Internet service that provides the same audio and video available to state public broadcast stations. In each of the first few days of operation, an average of 300 people accessed the site.

"Based on what we've seen so far, it's very successful," Brown said. "We're receiving a lot of notes indicating a great deal of satisfaction." That includes feedback from Nebraska teachers, who now want to build UniCAM Live! into their class curriculum.

Brown said the advantage of the Internet over traditional television is that constituents don't have to depend on their local station to carry the signal. While more stations might like to provide coverage, the unpredictability of the daily legislative timetable makes it difficult to plan television schedules.

"It's difficult for some cable providers to plan programming around the legislative session because we may have to stop abruptly or may continue beyond the scheduled adjournment time," he added.

According to Brown and Heck, the cost of providing this new access to citizens is minimal.

"Getting started is cheap, cheap, cheap," Heck said, since legislatures have most of the hardware necessary to make it available and it is a "natural extension" of services many legislatures provide. Nebraska invested around $17,000—nearly half of which went for licensing rights.

At least two other states will join Washington and Nebraska in providing audio and video coverage over the Internet this year. The Louisiana House of Representatives provided one hour a day of audio via the Internet in 1997 and this year has made the investment to provide gavel-to-gavel audio and video, along with maintaining archives of all sessions via the Web. House Clerk Alfred Speer says the goal is to have the service up and running during the March special session. John Hancock, president of the California Channel—a network of public service television stations that broadcast state legislative proceedings—also expects a March startup to extend the channel's signal via the Internet.

Audio of legislative sessions is available on the Web sites of a number of states, including Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Texas, Nevada and Wisconsin. Other states are considering it. Although the technology and interest in the service is growing, TVW's Heck believes legislatures should move faster.

"If anything, the potential impact on our economy and the way we govern ourselves is being under-hyped," Heck said. "This is clearly the most significant change since the Industrial Revolution and probably the printing press."

Lawmakers also are seeing the benefit. Washington state Senator Bill Finkbeiner, who sat on the committee before which Esvelt testified, considers TVW and its counterparts an important resource for citizens.

"I see it as a valuable way for constituents to keep informed," he said. "We don't control what they hear. It's an unedited and unfiltered way for citizens to access what we're doing at the state capital."

Esvelt agrees. In fact, she believes the service should be advertised and promoted so more people know it's available.

"The Internet access allows people like me without cable service to be involved with accurate and up-to-date information," she said. "I'm a believer."

Gene Rose is NCSL's public affairs director.

The Virtues of Virtual Meetings

Julie Rose was not going to let a little thing like a Caesarean section keep her from her civic duties in the Kentucky Senate.

So before the birth of her third child, daughter Caroline, in January, she battled for and won the right to participate in committee meetings via interactive television from her home. The Senate voted 28-4 to allow Rose (no relation to our feature writer) to present bills, participate in discussion and vote in committee. But the state attorney general ruled that a senator must be on the floor to participate in chamber proceedings.

Senator Rose, who was the first member of the General Assembly to give birth during a regular session, is back on the floor with even greater motivation to push her proposed constitutional amendment to allow videoconferencing.

"The technology worked well," she says, "and it's a good tool that we can use to better serve our constituents."

Her proposal, which was to be heard in committee in March, would allow lawmakers with physician-certified conditions that prevent them from traveling to participate in floor discussion and chamber votes.

The Kentucky senator said that policymakers from Alaska have contacted her about the amendment, since lawmakers in the nation's largest state are often faced with a long journey and inclement weather when trying to attend meetings in Juneau. An amendment similar to the one she is proposing in Kentucky, Rose says, would allow these lawmakers to participate in sessions via teleconferencing that they would otherwise not be able to attend.

—Dianna Gordon, NCSL

NCSL Home Page

Visitor counts for this page.