Friday February 10, 2023
Executive Board
Room 1525 – 12:00 PM
Document: LB254
Introducer: Brewer
Description: Require the Legislative Council to develop and maintain a publicly accessible digital Internet archive of closed-captioned video coverage of the Legislature and change powers and duties of the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission
* If you cannot join us in person, please submit online testimony, comments must be submitted by Thursday, February 9th at noon! *
View the bill and Submit online comments here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/bills/view_bill.php?DocumentID=49867
ALSO Email the Executive Board!!!
Committee Email: excpl@leg.ne.gov
Executive Board of the Legislative Council Members:
Sen. Tom Briese, Chairperson
Sen. Raymond Aguilar – raguilar@leg.ne.gov
Sen. John Arch – jarch@leg.ne.gov
Sen. Eliot Bostar – Ebostar@leg.ne.gov
Sen. Robert Clements – rclements@leg.ne.gov
Sen. Suzanne Geist – sgeist@leg.ne.gov
Sen. John Lowe – jlowe@leg.ne.gov
Sen. Merv Riepe – mriepe@leg.ne.gov
Sen. Julie Slama – jslama@leg.ne.gov
Sen. Tony Vargas – Tvargas@leg.ne.gov
Talking Points:
It is only reasonable that there be a digital record, accessible to the public, of the ongoings at the unicameral. Currently, the general public has access to a live stream through Nebraska Public Media only. More dedicated Nebraskans have taken the time to screen record hearings and share on YouTube. Only a select few are aware there is a process to request legislative hearings, and even a vast majority of the employees/officials in the building are unaware. This process requires an email with your name, address, specific hearing being requested – there’s a wait of 3+ days – and there’s a $10 fee for the flash drive. The flash drive also includes a very specific disclosure of permitted uses of the hearings. It’s a cumbersome and slow process.
The reality is, all of the capabilities exist to create a seemless process for citizens to have access to this material and be able to share the content with others.
It would, of course, be extremely beneficial in helping to promote Civic engagement from all Nebraskans and would drive web traffic to the Legislatures website, increasing the likelihood individuals look at things other than the initial reason they came to the site.
*** It’s worth mentioning that upon receiving video requests that NAGO will have the videos split up into individual clips with names and a description for each typically within 24hrs. Unless it’s a hearing like the Constitutional Carry bill that has hundreds of speakers – but we wouldn’t expect the Legislature will be doing all that … so, we’d like to think the Capitol could at least manage an accessible, publicly available, digital record.
Additional Sources:
As of 2009, 21 states had a live steam and archive of the audio/video of the States Legislature
https://www.mnhs.org/preserve/records/legislativerecords/docs_pdfs/Survey02-2009.pdf
https://www.ncsl.org/about-state-legislatures/preserving-legislative-digital-records
Very good bill!