Video Blackout of Hearing on Budgets for Legislative Support Agencies
Daniel Schuman <http://sunlightfoundation.com/people/dschuman/>Feb. 5,
2012, 10:31 a.m.
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/02/05/video-blackout-of-heari...

 This Tuesday, there will be hearing on budgets for the Library of
Congress, the Government Printing
Office<http://appropriations.house.gov/Calendar/EventSingle.aspx?EventID=277122>,
the Government Accountability Office, and the Congressional Budget Office.
It's too bad that the public won't have a real opportunity to learn about
these important agencies, as the meeting is not expected to be webcast by
the committee, and (if I remember correctly) the hearing room is so tiny
that few if any members of the public will be able to attend.

That's too bad, especially because this is the first opportunity to hear
firsthand how last year's budget
cuts<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/07/07/the-incredible-shrinkin...>
have
affected agencies' abilities to do their jobs, and learn about agency and
congressional priorities for the upcoming year. It's also the first time
we'll hear from the new acting Public
Printer<http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/893204-264/gpo_names_acting_pub...>
 (the
head of GPO); and perhaps the newly appointed head of the Congressional
Research Service<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/12/05/mary-mazanec-chosen-as-...>
will
be presented and introduced by the Librarian of Congress.

Only the House and Senate Legislative Appropriations Committees regularly
hold annual public hearings on the workings of these agencies; the
oversight committees (Committee on House Administration and Senate Rules)
generally do not, and the Joint Committee on the Library and Joint
Committee on Printing no longer holds substantive meetings in
public<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/06/22/congress-printing-and-l...>
.

The new House rules<http://www.rules.house.gov/singlepages.aspx?NewsID=160&rsbd=165>
require
that all committees provide "audio and video coverage of each hearing or
meeting" that "allows the public to easily listen ... and view the
proceedings" "to the maximum extent practicable." All of the House
committees have at least one hearing room that is equipped with a camera,
and the House Recording Studio will provide a camera upon a committee's
request. Unfortunately, this hearing is being held in a room without a
camera, and I've been informed that the Committee has not requested one.
The Appropriations Committee has not scheduled any other
hearings<http://appropriations.house.gov/Calendar/EventSingle.aspx?EventID=277122>
for
Tuesday, so the room with the pre-positioned camera should be available.

We ran into this problem last
year<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/05/10/hearing-on-the-houses-b...>,
when the Committee's justification for holding the meeting in the same
 tiny, camera-less room (HT-2) was that it was more convenient to hold the
hearing in the Capitol than in one of the legislative buildings. Even if
convenience were more important than  the public access rule, the House
Recording Studio could still provide a camera, and there are rooms in the
newly constructed $600+ million Capitol Visitor Center (i.e. in the
Capitol) that already have cameras installed. We would send a video crew
ourselves, but only organizations accredited by the House Radio-Television
Correspondents' Gallery <http://radiotv.house.gov/> can ask permission from
the Committee to record the event, and the Sunlight Foundation doesn't
qualify for membership.

Another change from last year is that members of the public are not invited
to speak at the hearing, although they may submit written comments. Along
with several others, I took the opportunity to speak last year, where I called
for bulk access to THOMAS data and public access to CRS
reports<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/05/11/sunlight-testimony-bulk...>.
I will submit comments for the record, but written comments are much less
effective than speaking directly to the Members of Congress. It's too bad,
especially because one of the major
lessons<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/02/02/benchmarks-for-measurin...>
of
last Thursday's House Legislative Data and Transparency
Conference<http://cha.house.gov/about/contact-us/legislative-data-conference>
 is
that the Library of Congress and GPO have apparently been ignoring their
legal obligation to make progress on public access to bulk
data<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/02/02/bulk-data-at-the-house-...>.
Ironically, it was this very Committee that imposed the obligation upon
them in the first place, 3 years ago.

As with everything in Congress, things could still change for Tuesday's
hearing -- its time, date, location, and whether it will webcast or covered
by the media. I plan on attending, and if I can make it into the room, I'll
post an update.

Daniel

Daniel Schuman
Director | Advisory Committee on Transparency<http://transparencycaucus.org/>
Policy Counsel | The Sunlight Foundation <http://sunlightfoundation.com/>
o: 202-742-1520 x 273 | c: 202-713-5795 | @danielschuman
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