An Act To Require Public Hearings by the Legislature To Be Recorded and Posted on the Internet
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 3 MRSA §162, sub-§19, as enacted by PL 1997, c. 43, §3, is amended to read:
19. Legislative information available through the Internet. To make the following information available through the Internet: legislative documents, committee hearing schedules, work session schedules, status of legislation, voting records of Legislators, the laws of Maine, study reports and reports of other study groups established by the Legislature and any other information designated by the Legislative Council. Beginning January 1, 2014, the Legislative Council shall arrange to record all joint standing committee public hearings and make these records accessible to the public on the Legislature's website within 72 hours of the public hearing. A committee may not hold a work session on a bill unless the public hearing record of the bill is accessible to the public on the Legislature's website. The public hearing record must be a permanent record in the form of a written transcript, audio recording, video recording or other electronic recording. The State Archivist shall assist and advise the Legislative Council in the establishment of records management programs for the public hearing records pursuant to Title 5, section 95, subsection 7.
summary
This bill requires that all joint standing committee public hearings are recorded and made accessible to the public as a written transcript, audio recording, video recording or other electronic recording on the Legislature's website within 72 hours of a public hearing beginning January 1, 2014. A committee may not hold a work session on a bill unless the record is available on the Legislature's website. The State Archivist is required to assist and advise the Legislative Council in establishing a records management program for committee public hearings.