Video-streamed Senate in works
Senators also pitch proposals for committee changes
The Arkansas Senate on Monday authorized two committees to work on implementing video streaming the body and its committee meetings, beginning with the regular session starting Jan. 14.
Then the two dozen senators at Monday’s meeting heard pitches for a proposal to create a 10th committee — the Senate Committee on Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms — and reduce the number of members on that chamber’s committees from eight to seven. They also heard a separate proposal to require five votes for a bill to clear a committee.
Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, who is in line to be the Senate’s leader starting in the 2019 regular session, said the body will probably consider the proposals next week.
The Arkansas Senate is one of nine in the country that don’t provide video webcasts of their sessions in their chambers, although they provide live audio, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures’ website. The other states are Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wyoming.
In the Arkansas House of Representatives, floor proceedings first aired in 2010, followed by committee meetings in 2011. Over the past several years, some on the political right and left have
repeatedly called on social media for the Arkansas Senate to follow suit.
Two months ago, Hendren said he would propose video streaming the Senate and its committee meetings because it would help restore and protect its integrity. At the time, he said he viewed it as another step toward a transparent open legislative process and to “change the culture to one where we can be proud of.”
That came shortly after the Senate approved an overhaul of its rules to create a committee on Senate ethics, prohibit senators from certain activities involving conflicts of interest and require more disclosure of other conflicts and personal financial information.
In the past few years, federal investigations have led to convictions of five former Arkansas state lawmakers — three Republicans and two Democrats.
Hendren told senators on Monday he knows there are pros and cons to video streaming the Senate and its committee meetings, but it’s time to do it.
He said preliminary cost estimates range from about $70,000-$80,000 up to $200,000-$250,000. There also will be ongoing costs with archiving this video streaming, with the service costing about $50,000 a year, he said.
In a voice vote with only Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, dissenting, the Senate authorized its Efficiency Committee to investigate video streaming the chamber and its committees and authorized its Rules Committee to develop rules and procedures for it.
“I support transparency, but I don’t support this,” Clark said. “I think it changes the flavor of the Senate forever.”
In addition, the Bureau of Legislative Research has cost estimates to livestream the legislative committee meetings held in the Multi-Agency Complex west of the state Capitol, Hendren said. The Legislative Council’s Executive Subcommittee will consider the proposals Sept. 20, then the full council on Sept. 21, said bureau Director Marty Garrity.
ATF COMMITTEE
Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, told senators his proposed rule change to create a 10th committee actually was the idea of former Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Eddie Joe Williams, R-Cabot.
The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs; the Public, Health and Welfare; and Judiciary committees each have big workloads and creating a 10th committee would reduce their workloads and could shorten the regular sessions, he said. The House of Representatives also has 10 committees, he noted.
The proposed rule change also would reduce the number of senators on committees from eight to seven, Stubblefield said.
The Judiciary Committee had an average of 268 bills during the past four regular sessions; the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee had an average of 245 bills; and the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee had an average of 238 bills, said Steve Cook, the Senate’s legal counsel.
Under this proposal, the new committee would handle all firearms bills now referred to the Judiciary Committee; all tobacco and alcohol-related bills now referred to the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee; and all medical marijuana-related bills now referred to the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, Stubblefield wrote in a letter dated Aug. 21 to senators.
“A complaint that we all hear is that too many bills find their way out of our committees and on to the floor,” Stubblefield wrote in his letter in which he proposed requiring five votes on a seven-member Senate committee to advance a bill to the full body.
“Some of you were in favor of having five votes to get a bill out of committee. Some wanted four,” he told senators Monday. “It’s two separate issues, whether we want to have a new standing committee, and whether or not we want four members to get a bill out or five members. That will be up to you.”
But Clark said he has a major problem with requiring 71.5 percent of the votes of seven Senate committee members to advance legislation through the committee.
Stubblefield suggested the Senate could vote separately on creating a 10th committee and on the number of votes required to advance legislation to the full Senate.
But Sen. Will Bond, D-Little Rock, said it’s almost impossible to separate gun bills from bills changing criminal laws.
Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, said he wants information about the precedence of other states requiring more than a majority of votes on a committee to advance legislation.
The 35-member Senate is now comprised of 26 Republicans and nine Democrats.