Transparency of committee hearings - transcript/audio/video

[Perla Ni]

Hey guys,

We just did a survey of what transcripts/audio/video is available from
Congressional Committees. We've heard from lots of advocacy groups
that the real stuff is in the committtees rather than on the floor
debates and that they need to know what's happening in these
committees inorder to follow and participate in the issues.

What we've found is pretty sad. Here's the state of available
video/audio/transcript for House and Senate committees:
http://www.voterwatch.org/index.php/voterwatch/blog/

You'll notice how many committees for which there is no audio, no
video nor transcript available. Including the Ethics committee,
ironically.

Also, for the ones that do post video, either it's not posted until
months after or it's posted, but not archived so if you miss it,
you've missed it.

I know that Carl Malamud, John and others have made progress on this
issue. (I know the short term procedure is to use the public order
form, get it signed by the committee chair and then pay $65 for each
60 minutes of video - all of which add up to a pretty substantial
obstacle to get information, I'd say. Or we could try calling up each
committee, asking for a particular day's transcript/video/audio - this
is pretty labor intensive and may get the committee staffers irritated
with our many requests )

Does anyone have any idea on the timetable for the next step that was
proposed - for Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Brady approve having the
videos on FTP servers? From what I've heard from staffers, all the
rooms are already wired for video last year.

--
Perla Ni
CEO, Founder, GreatNonprofits
www.greatnonprofits.org
"Online Zagat's Guide" About Nonprofits

Founder, Voterwatch.org
www.voterwatch.org
"Searchable CSPAN" for research and web publication

415-902-2659
Skype: Perlani
ni.p...@gmail.com

[Paul Blumenthal]

Perla,

Check out this study I did last year on this very topic. These two blog
posts contain all my research from the 109th Congress. (I have a pdf
somewhere but I think it's on my mac at home.)

House Version: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/1596
And
Senate Version: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/1617

Awesome work covering this for the 110th Congress,

Paul

[Perla Ni]

Wow, thanks Paul! Your research is impressively thorough.

You've found the rules in place that say that a record is supposed to
be available for these committees. Any ideas on how to get the rule
enforced?

Perla